Second Hand
by sphinxs-legend
Summary: Post 3x22. Bonnie realizes that she's lost control over what's happened in Mystic Falls and after making a quick decision, calls for help. Help ends up being "Evelina Austen", a familiar face who comes back to Mystic Falls. Why does she look so much like a doppelgänger and why did she answer the spell? And why, oh why, does she consort with the bad guys? Damon/OC slight Klaus/OC
1. Prologue

Second Hand

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**Summary:** Post 3x22. Bonnie realizes that she's lost control over what's happened in Mystic Falls and after making a quick decision, she calls for help. Help ends up being "Evelina Austen", a familiar face coming back to Mystic Falls. Why does she look so much like a doppelgänger and why did she answer the spell? And why, oh why, does she consort with the bad guys? Damon/OC slight Klaus/OC

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"Tell me where she is!" Damon commanded, his voice as strong as it could be considering how weak he now felt. This was all a terrible idea, Evie had only ever wanted Katherine to help her, but now it had gone too far. Evie was gone and _Katherine_ was the last to have seen her. Not him, _Katherine. _What terrible things could the bitch have done in the time before she disappeared? What would she need in trade to tell him where Evie had gone?

It may have been Evie's terrible idea to use Katherine's information, but he couldn't stop his mind from replaying how it was _he _who let her come here alone with the woman who had single handedly ruined his life. The same woman who had already taken advantage of Evie, herself, so many times before - everyone had grown too complacent to this. _He _had grown to complacent to this. He should have trusted his instincts and not trusted Katherine, like he had sworn to himself he never would again.

"What will you do, Damon?" Katherine smiled around his hand on her throat, her dark eyes humorous. "You'll…lock me in a tomb again?"

"There are worse things I could do and you know it. I could _feed _you to Klaus." For a start. That would not be the only thing he would do to Katherine were one single hair out of place when Evie was found. But her eyes didn't show any fear towards his threat. In fact they seemed to sparkle at the idea.

"Oh, I get it...you don't know yet."

"I don't know what?" He hissed, annoyed that all he could do was ask questions without getting any answers from her. This was not how it was supposed to work. She was supposed to be at _his _mercy. Only Katherine could stay so vividly in control at the time when Damon was his strongest.

"I'm not allowed to tell you…" she nearly sang, waltzing away from him and moving away to look around her room with a melodramatic sigh. "Did you know I found a diary in here yesterday? Little Evelina came and took it from me, though. Sad, it had some very interesting things to say about you, Damon..."

His attention did not sway like she had wanted it to. "I don't care what you read in whoever's diary, Katherine. Are you not allowed to tell me or do you just not want to?"

"Believe it or not, I have been under oath not to say a word about it to _you_," she smiled at his bemused expression. "'Especially not Damon', she had said. But, I guess since it's too late for her…"

"Too late for _who?_" Her sparkling eyes told him the answer, rooting him to the ground in worry. Katherine stalked towards him again, just to taunt him; just to mock him that currently, he was not seeing the person he _did _want to see, that her eyes weren't Evie's eyes.

"You just couldn't save anyone, could you, Damon? Not Elena, not me, not little Evie…"

"What do you mean it's too late for her?" He was trying to keep his cool, but he knew he was coming up short. He hated how in control she could be at times like this, but Katherine wasn't giving him the answers he needed to go hunt for her. Evie wasn't here anymore - _that _he could smell.

"You know exactly what I mean. And deep down in that withered, black heart of yours, you know I'm telling the truth. Oh Damon, Damon, Damon - haven't you realized what's happened?" She nearly laughed at the look in his eyes. "She did tell you she would 'fix it', didn't she?"

His blood cooled in his veins. Yes, she had. She had assured him just the night before, and every night before that. But that was just her way, it was what she always said to him, what she said to everyone. It was just to comfort him when he got riled up, when he felt like the walls were falling in on him - like the walls were falling _now._

"What does that mean?"

"That she's gone to fix it." She rolled her eyes when he didn't seem to understand. "She's gone to Klaus, Damon." The cold blood froze his heart as he looked at her with angry eyes.

"You're lying, Katherine. I know you can do better than _that_-"

"I'm not lying," she scoffed. "Soon, I'm going to walk right out of this house and no one will be able to stop me." She smiled, a large, vicious smile. "Little Evie's known this day would come since it was assigned to her."

"What are you talking about?"

"You haven't realized, Damon? Really?" The condescension all but oozed from her. She said it as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, but he really _didn__'__t _understand. He didn't need the riddles or the taunts, he needed the answers to find out where Evie was. "You weren't confused as to why _she _came here? Why it wasn't anyone else who was brought to deal with the problem? Why everyone reached out and _she _answered? Evie did. She realized what she had to do and she's been preparing herself so that she'd be ready when the time came."

"The time came for what?"

She smiled a dangerous, fanged smile. "Petrova blood must be sacrificed, Damon."


	2. A Magic Messup

**Summary: **Post 3x22. Bonnie realizes that she's lost control over what's happened in Mystic Falls and after making a quick decision, she calls for help. Help ends up being "Evelina Austen", a familiar face coming back to Mystic Falls. Why does she look so much like a doppelgänger and why did she answer the spell? And why, oh why, does she consort with the bad guys? Damon/OC slight Klaus/OC

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Chapter One: A Magic Mess-up

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Damon Salvatore was content. Not happy, but content. He was content because he was home. Content because the night had been silent. Content because the stupid witch in his library had kept to herself. Content because of his overflowing glass of whiskey. Content and consequently unhappy by the solitude of that very blissful moment. He was alone tonight and this is what kept him from actually being happy.

Or maybe his displeasure came from the fact that Elena Gilbert had blatantly denied his affection. Again.

Or maybe it was that Elena Gilbert had died. Again. But this time, she had no daddy-uncle to save her or precious spells to keep her heart beating. This time, Elena Gilbert had died and she would stay dead, even though she was currently walking around the neighbourhood with Caroline and Stefan learning how to hunt for Bambi and his fluffy friends.

Or, maybe it was because Elena was also furious with him. Again. Not only did she now know of his feelings for her, not only had she already explained that Stefan had been her choice, not only had she decided to live in the light and feed on pets instead of predators, but she _blamed _him for it. She blamed him for being incapacitated by that stupid doctor and having Meredith leech his blood out of his veins. It was his blood that she had used to heal Elena's hemorrhaging. It was his blood that had been in her system when she had died. It was his blood that had turned her into what she hated the most.

He took another sip from the brandy in his glass, frowning when he realized it was the same brand that he had shared with Alaric before he died and subsequently came back to life - a lot of that had been happening lately. Why didn't people just stay dead anymore?

As he was marveling in the silence - and over pouring another glass of whiskey - there was a flickering of the lights. He hummed to himself quietly, swirling his drink to let it breathe. Then, loudly, there was a knock on the door.

The knock was loud, the room was loud, but the silence after it was louder. Rain poured down the windows and yet, all he could hear was the silence after the hurried pounding. He turned in his seat to watch the door. It stayed solid and rigid, not quivering under more pressure.

He took a sip of whiskey.

He continued to watch the door, continued to see as the world around him bubbled with curiosity that he refused to let himself feel. Only vampires needed to knock. Only vampires could be so patient as to wait. So he continued to wait, too.

He took another sip of whiskey.

Still silence. He found his eyes narrowing. Surely Elena wouldn't have wanted to come back to the boarding house yet, she usually stayed angry with him for longer. Besides, Stefan wouldn't normally knock coming into his own house. It had been well over two minutes now, two minutes of him not even daring to breathe. Yet, there was no other sound. He tried to expand his hearing, listen to whether or not there was a mortal outside the door - but no. He had not fed in days, his senses were off and the rain was pounding so hard against the door that a heartbeat could easily have been lost in the mess of it all.

He took another sip of Whiskey.

There was a creak on the stairs - it was loud against the silence and indecision he was battling with. The witch, that stupid and insufferable witch, had apparently decided to show her face. But when he noticed the look on it he was confused. She was walking quietly, looking at the door as if the monster from under her bed was behind it - did she know something he didn't? Had the boogeyman finally come to join the party in Mystic Falls?

"Have you checked behind the door?" she croaked, not daring to rip her eyes from the door that seemed to be growing in the size the longer they waited.

"Nope," he popped his 'p' to try and seem less bothered by her reactions. "Figured anyone who can't come in isn't wanted here."

"You're sure it's not Elena?" he scoffed at her question.

"As if boyfriend-wonder wouldn't let her in, himself." he grumbled bitterly. "It's not Elena."

"Then it worked," she breathed, taking another two steps down toward the door. She seemed to think about it for a moment. "The spell worked!"

Damon barely registered what was happening before noticing that she was sprinting to the door. Luckily, even with the alcoholic delay, his vampire reflexes got him there first.

"What spell?"

"My spell," she glared at him. "I asked the witches to help us. I told them that I couldn't do it alone...I didn't think it would work so fast..."

"Maybe it didn't," he suggested. Bonnie glared.

"We need help, Damon."

"I'm insulted," he mocked.

"Well, you haven't been doing the best job." Her dark eyes moved to the door again. "I called for help - if they brought someone here, then that person is the best person we can get."

"And if your spell didn't work and it's actually someone here to kill us? You know, again." He added before swirling his glass pensively. Bonnie frowned, looking from him to the door once more.

"Can we really be that unlucky?"

"Well, you're a witch. If you study the angles of the sun and the moon - I'd say yes we can."

Bonnie ignored the rude comment, while the two stared at the door for a moment, trying to decide what to do. Damon, possibly feeling more confident than he should have - or maybe it was recklessness from his new form of limbo - decided that he had had enough waiting for things to get better.

"Well, sick of this." He shrugged, slipping the glass to his lips, taking the rest down like water and slamming it against a side table. He was lucky he hadn't fed, normally that force could have broken the crystal. He stood up, steeling his muscles to fight and cursing himself for not taking the time to feed, just in case of this scenario. Then again, how could he have known that the witch would decide to call help from the spirits from beyond - you know, the ones that liked to haunt him and torture him for who knew what reason anymore?

Hm. Maybe he _shouldn't _open the door.

But even though it was throbbing in front of him like a red beacon screaming '_Danger! Danger!_', the closer he walked the more he felt pulled to answer it. He looked behind him once more to see the witch had come a few steps closer.

"If it _is _something that is trying to kill us, are you going to run?"

"Yes," she answered honestly. He tried not to roll his eyes.

"Good. I'd hate for you to have my back or anything..."

He pulled the old handle back slowly, the door creaking more loudly than normal thanks to the humidity from all the rain. It echoed through the silence as it swung open to reveal a rain shattered face.

It took a moment, even for his spectacular vision to see the face of the young woman in front of him. Years younger than when he had been turned at 24, this girl was closer to Stefan's age than his own. She was small, much smaller than Elena by height, though curvier and somehow, much, much more fragile. Her skin had blanched in the rain, though it was still darker than his own and she looked ready to faint, her chattering teeth giving an idea of her condition. She was drenched, a short and drenched purple pea coat over top of strangely water resistant and glossy clothes that didn't look like anything he'd ever seen. The back of her coat and pale face were smothered in dripping black hair which fell into unfamiliar gray eyes. It was the only unfamiliar thing about her. And looking into those eyes, against that hair and matched with that face, gave an unbelievable sensation that washed over him.

"Do I know you?" he asked lazily, not as concerned about the girl's wild, shifting eyes and more concerned about the vague sense of familiarity that surrounded her. The problem was that she wasn't looking at him, she was looking at Bonnie who had come to stand at his shoulder. "And is there a reason you look like Elena Gilbert?"

"It's true," her low voice was rasped and hoarse. "You're here. _I'm _here."

"Who are you?" Bonnie asked a little breathlessly, waiting for her theory to be read right. "Are-are you a doppelganger?"

"A doppelganger?" She seemed confused. "No, no, Bonnie it's me...you did this, didn't you? You brought me back - oh Bonnie, why would you do this to me?" she whispered, looking around her again as if she was scared someone was going to come out and grab her, her eyes were red as she began to cry. She pushed her hands through her wet hair, pulling it away from her face more, from _Elena's _face more.

"How do you know my name?" Bonnie asked. "Who are you?"

The girl stopped looking around and tried to focus her gaze on Bonnie. It seemed a challenge for her, she was clearly ready to fall over at any second.

"Bonnie, it's me. It's Evie."

"Evie?" Bonnie looked at her nervously before her gaze shifted to Damon, who raised an eyebrow interestedly. Bonnie shrugged a little bit. "I don't know an Evie."

"You sent for me, you said 'they need your help, we need your help'-" the girl, Evie, cut herself off as she looked between Bonnie and Damon again. "When am I?"

"You're in Mystic Falls," Bonnie answered nervously. The girl shook her head, slamming her hand against the door frame - it shook the house in a way that made Bonnie jump nervously. Damon raised his eyebrows...this girl was a threat.

"_When _am I?" Evie repeated. Her eyes, looking more green than before, caught Bonnie's again. "Bonnie - when did you send me?"

"It's 2010..." Bonnie answered with a nervous voice. "Who are you?"

The girls hands had raised to her head, she looked torn between fainting or vomiting and Damon couldn't help but sneer.

"If you ruin this hardwood, you're paying for it."

"You're fucking _kidding _me," The girl groaned and let out another curse that sounded like another language, even as she shivered in the rain and almost swayed far enough to fall over. "My name is Evelina Austen, and you, Bonnie Bennett, are my ancestor."

"Your _what_?"

Her gray eyes shot to Bonnie's again, tears mingling with the rain that was still falling on her. "Bonnie, what the hell have you done?"

And, with no warning, her eyes closed and Evie fell into a heap at their feet. Damon cocked his head to the side, looking out the door, this way and that, scanning for witnesses. But that was impossible, the only things that were hunting out there were the things he had helped create. Bonnie turned nervous eyes to him - she looked as lost as he was. And with nothing but silence and stillness, he picked the girl up and brought her inside.

"This," he hissed to the offending witch who _clearly _shouldn't be allowed to do spell work on her own. "Is not good."

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**Well everyone, this is the new story! I am super excited for it as I am a huge fan of The Vampire Diaries. I have read the books, I have watched the show, and I have come out with this crazy idea in my head - so I decided to share it with you all!**

**I of course do not own the Vampire Diaries: not it's characters, plot lines, or epicness. I do, however, own Evie and what you hear of her family and future. I also did not edit this but the wonderful **_Angel of the Night Watchers _**did. And I will not do another disclaimer, because let's be honest - you know I'm not L. J. Smith or the fantastic and extensive writing crew of the show. **

**Reviews are inspiring!**


	3. Evelina Austen

**Well, I got a fair number of hits for the last chapter, even if I only got two reviews. I hope that you like this next chapter, the next one should be out in a few days time :)**

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**Summary:** Post 3x22. Bonnie realizes that she's lost control over what's happened in Mystic Falls and after making a quick decision, she calls for help. Help ends up being "Evelina Austen", a familiar face coming back to Mystic Falls. Why does she look so much like a doppelgänger and why did she answer the spell? And why, oh why, does she consort with the bad guys? Damon/OC slight Klaus/OC

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Chapter Two - Evelina Austen

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"It's not possible." Stefan whispered, watching the girl asleep ten feet in front of Damon. His hand was covering his mouth as if, when he were to pull it down, he would actually be forced to say the truth aloud. "It's just not possible."

"Oh, but it is." Damon countered as he pivoted back towards Stefan, mid-pace. "I quote 'you're here, I'm here', she knew who Bonnie was, and apparently the witches _spoke_ to her. This is not good, Stefan." He hissed, narrowing his eyes at the girl that was still asleep. He didn't like that she was sleeping in the room beside his, because it meant that he was already being put on watch for her. He didn't even want her to be here and he couldn't begin to understand how she could just sleep through something that was this stressful. Couldn't she feel the nerves bouncing around in the room? Apparently time travel was exhausting.

Damon hated everything about her.

He also knew that if he kept pacing like this, he was going to wear a hole into the ornate Persian rug that he'd paid an arm and a leg for over four decades ago. He was tired and frustrated and losing the buzz he'd had going all night before this little brat decided to answer a time-portal phone call.

Ugh, he needed to get another glass of whiskey.

"And you say you had called for help with the witches?" Stefan asked, turning toward Bonnie. She was standing with her back pressed firmly against the paneled wall, she looked like she would run away if she moved away from it. Damon, of course, had threatened her life for insurance that she wouldn't. If it was true and _Bonnie _had brought this girl - this _Evelina _- to them, it was her problem to deal with.

"I did," she explained shakily. "But I didn't think I was defying any sort of time barrier - when something like that happens, it usually takes a lot more magic."

"Time travel being difficult, who would have thought?"

"Could she be lying?" Stefan asked, ignoring Damon's sarcastic remarks.

"Uh, _yes._" Damon answered dryly, he stopped pacing to face the two of them again. "Listen, we don't know anything about the kid. She said she came from the future, she knew your name, she knew you were a witch - she didn't actually know _anything_. If that's all she has going for her, I don't buy it."

"And that she looks just like Elena," Bonnie whispered. "I'd say that throws a wrench in things, don't you think? What if she's a doppelganger?"

"She doesn't look 'just like Elena'," Damon scoffed, continuing on to wear a hole in the rug. He was unable to stop himself from taking another peek at the girl snoozing in the bed in front of him.

Alright, not that he wanted to, but he could admit there was a _resemblance - _a very _slight_ resemblance - between them. And she looked more like Katherine than Elena anyway, thanks to her slow-drying curls. She did have a similar pigment to her skin and he could see that she had some very _basic _facial characteristics similar to that of the doppelgangers - but that was where the resemblance ended. There was something he remembered that was _very _different from the doppelgangers, and to him it was all the evidence he needed. "She has gray eyes."

"And Elena has straight hair," Bonnie argued. "Slight differences happen."

"Oh, so you're a genius on ancient doppelganger curses, now?" Damon sneered at her, leaning up against the bookshelf as he shook his head. He fought against a headache that was trying to burst through his temples - this was too much to think about after how much he had been drinking earlier on. "Listen, this is ridiculous. Let's just compel her once she wakes up, get our answers, and kill her after."

"You mean kill her if she's lying," Stefan looked at him darkly.

"Not really, but whatever floats your boat."

"She knows about me being a witch," Bonnie shook her head. "Liar or not, if she knows about witches she knows about vampires. That means she knows about vervain - you won't be able to get your answers that easily."

"Good point," Stefan sighed, rubbing his forehead thanks to a headache that had begun pushing against his skull. Bonnie couldn't help but notice for one moment that Damon and Stefan actually looked similar - it was rare to see any resemblance between the two. "So, what do we do then?"

"I still say kill her," Damon shrugged, rolling his eyes when he saw the witch's reaction. "Don't be so surprised - she could be dangerous. Let's call it a 'preemptive measure'."

"No," Bonnie said at once, trying to cut off the idea before he got too ahead of himself. "On the off-chance that she is lying, I say we keep a watch on her. But don't you think it's a little more than a coincidence that I do a spell for help and a girl - claiming to have _heard _the spell - knocked on the door? Besides, if I'm-" she swallowed, unable to say the words comfortably. "If I'm her ancestor, that means she's a witch. A _Bennett _witch."

"So?"

"Don't tell me you've already forgotten the history of Bennett witches," Stefan taunted morosely.

"They're the biggest and the baddest, yeah. I know. I was there. All I can hope is that she's a better witch than _you_," Damon shot a glare over to the ever-judgmental girl in the corner. She glared back at him for another moment before turning her eyes to the girl, still asleep in the bed.

Even though Damon wouldn't agree outright, it shocked Bonnie how much she looked like her best friend. Sure, she had curly hair, and yes - Bonnie had noticed that she had light eyes, but everything else looked like an upsetting mixture of her friend. And not only that, but this _'Evelina'_ wasn't in normal clothes either. She was wearing a coat, of a material Bonnie couldn't identify, but her clothes were definitely not bought around here. They were tight and glossy, pockets all throughout them with little actually covering her skin.

"Stefan, where did you go?" Elena's voice ripped through the trio's debating, making them all look at each other nervously. Bonnie hadn't been able to hear exactly how Damon had convinced Stefan to leave Elena while hunting with Caroline, but she knew that Elena did not know about the mysterious visitor that happened to be her mirror image. Her friend had already been through so much in the past two days, she wasn't sure that she was ready to see another possible doppelganger.

"Distract her," Damon ordered, twitching his eyes down to the doorway. But before he could even try, the door to the room was opening.

"Why would he need to distract - oh my god," Elena gasped. Caroline had come in right after her and quickly took a hold of her shoulders as if to push her back out of the room, but Elena was still staring determinedly at the bed. "Why is Katherine in that bed?"

"Alright, you idiots are all blind," Damon sighed loudly. "She doesn't look anything like you or Katherine."

"But-that _is _Katherine, isn't it?" Elena looked back to the girl, shaking her head and closely looking at all the differences between her own reflection and the girl laying on the bed. They were hard to spot, but she guessed that she could see some things she knew her face didn't have - curlier hair, a different nose...

"She does, she looks just like me...or, Katherine, I guess."

"Well, you're wrong. She has gray eyes."

"How did she get here?" Caroline demanded. "And why are we watching her sleep like creeps?"

"Because Bonnie wouldn't let me kill her or throw her in the cellar." Damon said as if it were the simplest answer in the world. Both girls turned their eyes to Bonnie, who tried to look as innocent as she could. She took a step towards them, not quite sure how to make them understand what she had done or why she had done it.

"I brought her here, kind of by accident." Bonnie explained. "She's the one who answered the spell."

"What spell?" Elena guffawed, looking from Bonnie to the girl with suspicious eyes.

"I asked for someone to come help us," she explained, becoming defensive. "Everything just went wrong, Elena. We need help and if no one else was willing to admit it, I was willing to fix it. I asked the spirits of the witches to bring someone to help us and they brought _her._"

"_May have_ brought her," Damon argued, even Stefan nodded.

"She told me that she heard me. That the spirits told her to follow-"

"Oh, wait, what's the best part?" Damon asked sarcastically, smiling in a vindictive way. Everyone looked from him to Bonnie, who closed her eyes to chase off her annoyance. What was she going to say but the truth? There was no hiding what she had heard - it was important. It was why _she _was here.

"She said I was her ancestor."

"Her _ancestor_?" Caroline repeated, completely dumbfounded. "But-but wouldn't that make her-"

"Oh yeah. Little Evelina here is from the _future_!" Damon couldn't keep the condescension from his voice. "And she came to help granny Bonnie who is afraid of the big, bad vampires. Isn't that right, witchy?"

"Evelina? That's her name?" Elena looked over at her, taking a few steps forward. "And you say she's yourancestor?"

"That's what she said," Bonnie agreed. Elena couldn't help but take even another step forward, close to the side of the bed. Damon tried to get her to go back, but after shooting him one of the withering glares she had mastered since her kind-of death, Damon retreated. Elena examined the girl again, taking in each feature of her face.

"Then why does she look like _me_?"

"We don't know," Stefan finally spoke. Elena turned to look at him, trying to show him how lost she was with her eyes, but he had no answers to give her. He had nothing that he could say to her to comfort her or to assure her that everything would be okay - now that Elena was a vampire, he knew there was a chance that nothing would ever be okay again.

"She's here to help us, guys. I can feel it," Bonnie assured. "Are you at least willing to give her a chance?"

Damon was proud to see that Elena was being skeptical over making her decision. Perhaps this new life of vampirism would teach her not to be so reckless - the point was ruined, however, when she turned to Bonnie and nodded her head.

"I can't trust her, but I trust you." Elena said sweetly. "Besides, if she tries anything, we have enough brute force to stop her."

"You're sure about this?" Stefan asked the women, looking around at them all and waiting for their assent before he looked to Damon. "Are you?"

"I'm sure you're all idiots," he offered. "But hell, I'm ready for another adventure. Our lives haven't been threatened for a whole 36 hours, I was starting to get bored."

Though the women glowered at him, Stefan chose to move on. "Bonnie, can you wake her up?"

"We'll find out," she offered, walking toward the bed a little and placing her hand over top of the other girl's. She could feel the coolness of the girl's skin warm from her touch - the blankets seemed to have done little to warm her from the cold night. She felt a shock, almost like she was zapped with static electricity, before she heard the girl take in a deep breath as if she woke from a nightmare.

"Oh God," her wide, gray eyes had tacked onto Elena, ten feet from the bed. They were bleary and sleep filled and she took the time to rub them as she spoke. "I had the weirdest dream. Bonnie brought me back to when you were _actually _teens and some moron said something about the hardwood-" her eyes finally seemed to clear of the sleep. It was a noticeable transition because as they cleared, she looked around the room and at the hand that was still atop hers. She froze.

"I don't think I deserved to be called a moron," Damon said after a moment. "I just didn't want you puking on my floor."

"It's not a dream," she said lowly, looking at all the faces around the room before her eyes raked in Elena. "All those years down the road, Elena, when you tell me bedtime stories about your past...I would really appreciate it if you would include me being thrown back in time like a rag doll being thrown across a street."

"How do you know me?" Elena asked strongly, her eyes intent on the girl's face. It was strange to look at her and see her own expressions playing on them - but she had seen them somewhere else before. Somehow, though she knew they all looked exactly alike, this girl resembled Katherine much more than she resembled Elena, herself. The curls may have done it. It certainly wasn't the gray eyes and Damon was right - they were _very _gray. But most likely, it was the haughty and dark expressions that flitted through her eyes before she hid them behind a mask of suspicion.

"Better yet," Damon interrupted. "How do you kind of look like her?"

"I know you, Elena Gilbert, because you were pretty much my makeshift mother growing up. And Stefan," her eyes flickered to him as well. "I notice you're still stuck to her side. And Caroline-" she took a deep breath. "Well, I didn't meet you until a bit later, but you and I will be close too. You take me shopping and sneer at my styles."

"And you said I'm your ancestor?" Bonnie asked, looking at Evelina suspiciously.

"I'm the youngest of the Bennett descendants, yeah." Her eyes narrowed on Bonnie.

"Then why do you look just like Elena does?" Stefan asked again. She rolled her eyes slightly and let out a huff - she seemed to be as annoyed as the Damon was; he was still stewing in the corner. Evelina's finished rolling and skimmed over to Elena. Suddenly, her gaze hardened and she set her jaw, there was a moment she looked genuinely confused. Then, she let out a gasp.

"When the-" she cut herself off with a stubborn shake of her head. "Elena...are you a _vampire_?"

Elena sucked in a deep breath before nodding. "Shouldn't you have known that?"

"How old are you?"

"Does it matter?" Elena bit back. Her gray-eyed mirror image looked almost insulted before she got her bearings and angrily shook her head.

"Well, Miss Bitch-a-bunch," she said with a tone that befit Damon's angriest, "if you have been turned into a vampire _before _your twenty-second birthday, when you will - _spoiler alert_ - have your one and only _baby..._" she gave Elena a moment to lock her eyes against Stefan's. "You see, then I'll cease to exist. So, yeah, whether or not you're a vampire does happen to matter to me. A lot."

"Wait, what? Evelina-" Bonnie spoke. "Are you saying you're a Gilbert?" Bonnie had taken a step forward to address her, but after saying her name, her intimidating glare made her think it best to just stand her ground. Stefan couldn't help but notice that it was precisely the same glare that Elena had given Damon when he'd tried to keep her from getting to close to the bedside - he knew then that it must be true.

She _must _be a doppelganger.

"Technically I'm saying I'm a Petrova," she corrected. "And that I'm a Petrova through _you_," she pointed to Elena. "So you better be a goddamn human because if I cease to exist, I'm going to be pretty pissed off."

"Wait," Caroline waved her hands, thinking this was much too much to take in. "You're a Petrova _and _a Bennett? You're related to both of them? How is that even possible?"

"Well, you guys are super old in my time, so there was time to mingle some bloodlines." Evelina muttered bitterly, before turning to Bonnie. "Is this why you called for help? Because of Elena?"

"Because of everything," Bonnie corrected, as if none of the worrisome conversation had just happened at all. "We've been going through a lot so reinforcements seemed like the only option left."

"Well, why the hell would you call _me_?"

"What do you mean?" Bonnie asked, blinking in confusion.

"I mean, I had my own things going on in my time - boys and school and a war and my own little supernatural problems. So why didn't you call one of your other predecessors? You know, one of the one's with some feasible powers?" Bonnie almost smiled, a homeliness settling in her gut that she couldn't name - but she thought it resembled something very close to pride.

"You mean, there are more Bennett witches?"

"If you count my three sisters, yeah." She rolled her eyes. "They're way better than me at magic, too. _So _much better. Ella can do anything to do with nature, Eva has anything to do with psychic energy and channelling, and Ello can manipulate pretty much anything, anywhere, anytime."

"What kind of names are those?" Caroline asked Elena quietly. Evelina sighed from her place on the bed.

"Oh so you've _always _been subtle, awesome." Elena was quickly taking note that Evelina's sarcasm was as biting as her glares. "And they're short forms. Elonnie, Evaine, Elodie and Evelina. Actually," she gave a sarcastic smile and cocked her head to the side. "Our names may sound a little familiar if you listen for the roots, considering they're pretty much renditions of yours. When I'm from, people got tired of trying to find new names - everything's been done. So we just try to honour people. Usually dead people, but my family's always been pretty into you undead folks."

"And your sisters - they're good at magic?"

"Good," she scoffed, "they're better than good. And they're way better than me."

"That's not good," Stefan muttered to himself, though everyone heard it. He had been saying that a lot in the past few days.

"Great," Damon spoke up. People turned to look at him, almost surprised he had managed to stay quiet for so long. He was still seething in the corner, looking personally affronted and disgusted. He didn't try to hide the negativity he felt towards the gray-eyed witch in the bed. "We got the defective model."

Evelina looked at him for a long moment, her eyes narrowing in anger. "Who the hell are you?"

"He's Damon," Elena said slowly, looking to Evelina with furrowed eyebrows. "Don't you know Damon?"

How could she not know Damon if she had been able to identify every other person in the room? She knew Stefan and Elena, Caroline and even Bonnie from whatever magical business the witches can talk to each other during. But she didn't say that she was joking and she didn't correct herself. Instead, she looked at him again for a long moment. She looked him up and down before she turned away, apparently unimpressed with the show. "Never heard of him."

Everyone looked at one another nervously, before looking to Damon again. He looked almost surprised as well, though he tried hiding it with more contemptuous glares in the young girl's direction. Elena and Stefan exchanged looks before Stefan looked back to his brother.

"That's definitely not good either."

* * *

**What **_**does **_**that mean, that she doesn't know who Damon is? How can anyone not know who he is? I personally think he's a god, but hey, that's just me. To my wonderful reviewers:**

_alwaysxlove_**: I'm glad you're excited! I am so excited over this idea. I have so many twists and turns planned, you wouldn't even believe they can all happen in one story...hope you enjoyed this chapter and thanks for the review!**

_:)_**: I may take select ideas from the next season as I write, if I find it necessary to this plot but this is AU past when Elena is turned into a vampire. Hopefully you'll still want to read! **

**Please let me know what you're thinking. Remember, a ****REVIEW**** can be inspirational!**

**-Egypt**


	4. Trust Issues

**Hello readers, I'm so happy with how many people are reading, now if I could get even half of you reviewing, life would be spectacular :) hope you like what you read...next one should be out in a few days.**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

**Summary:** Post 3x22. Bonnie realizes that she's lost control over what's happened in Mystic Falls and after making a quick decision, she calls for help. Help ends up being "Evelina Austen", a familiar face coming back to Mystic Falls. Why does she look so much like a doppelgänger and why did she answer the spell? And why, oh why, does she consort with the bad guys? Damon/OC slight Klaus/OC

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Chapter Three – Trust Issues

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"You locked her in the bathroom?" Elena asked skeptically, Damon only shrugged his shoulders in response. He stood up from the couch, sensing the confrontation with a sigh.

"Damon, she's a witch. You really think that she won't just get out anyway?" Caroline asked with a roll of her eyes. Bonnie did the same before snagging the chair farthest from Damon, who had now placed himself near the fire, his signature glass of whiskey in his hand.

"Maybe, if she's actually a witch," he pointed at her, almost spilling some of his drink in the process. "I'm not really taking bets on it."

"Did you at least give her the clothes I gave you?" Elena asked with a sigh. It was sad that everyone knew Damon would get his way with his little experiment, but no one really had the energy to try and fight him for it – and he would put up a fight.

"I think I threw them in there. But if she comes down here looking like you, I swear-"

"What d'you swear?" All of the people in the living room turned to see Evelina walking down the stairs looking smug – and in Elena's clothes. She looked at them all disinterestedly from behind a curtain recently washed hair. She gave Damon a particularly dark glare before pulling her arm back and throwing something at his face. Catching it in his hand with a bit of a wince, he took a look at the blood that had gathered where it had pricked him in the palm and raised an eyebrow. It was a safety pin.

"These old locks are easy to pick open. They didn't start making places hard to break into until the early 2200's. So if you're going to test my magic, you have to try with better challenges than _that._"

"Well, at least you'll be amusing." Damon frowned, tossing the safety pin onto the table. "Alright, whose turn is it to test the phony?"

"How about mine?" Evelina asked with a raised eyebrow. It unnerved him how much she really looked like Katherine now that she was in Elena's clothes – as Katherine had been not long before – and the taunting glare behind her eyes. He had been right all along: she barely resembled Elena at all. Not with her rough, sarcastic demeanor that screamed of _Katherine._

"I'm all for it," Stefan voiced, standing from his chair.

"Good to hear...but you can't be part of it," she smiled cynically. "None of the vampires can."

"What? No!" Caroline looked dismayed. "That's everyone but Bonnie and that's not fair – I want proof too!"

"Sorry Care, those are my terms. If you would have brought one of my sisters, you could watch their magic like TV, but since you brought me..." She shrugged animatedly, turning her gaze over to Bonnie. Elena couldn't help but feel a little unnerved by the casual nickname she had already given to Caroline. It just felt too intimate. Then again, if she did know Caroline years down the road, it was a good start to proving it, wasn't it? "Are you in or out?"

"I'm in," Bonnie all but jumped at the chance, standing up to follow Evelina up the stairs. When she saw everyone's nervous faces in front of her she smiled encouragingly at them. "I'll be alright, guys. If she can't do magic, I can. And if she _can _do magic, then she really is here to help us like I asked for."

No one looked very convinced as Evelina turned on her socked foot and started walking again, mumbling about Elena's 'vintage' clothes the whole way.

"Wait, Evelina-"

"Eww," she sneered immediately. "Please god no, it's Evie."

"Evie," Stefan repeated. "What are you going to do?"

"Call in some more helpful reinforcements." She said seriously. "Now let's go."

Bonnie didn't argue anymore before she started jumping the stairs to meet the non-doppelganger. The others stared at each other nervously.

"Trust her?" Stefan turned to look at them.

"Nope," Damon popped his 'p' and turned back to his glass of whiskey. "I maintain you're all stupid and I think we should start looking for a good place to bury her."

"We need to trust Bonnie," Elena said sternly. "Bonnie trusts her, so we have to trust her. If what she's saying is true, she's as innocent as the rest of us are."

"And if she's lying?" Caroline couldn't help but asking.

"Which she is," Damon pointed out, loudly putting his empty glass back on the table.

"Then we deal with it," Elena sighed. "Don't you want to at least imagine the idea of having some help? Having another Bennett witch could do so much – especially if she really is telling the truth. Because if she is, Evie's already loyal to us."

"She sounds like a sarcastic bitch, to me." Damon grumbled, pouring another glass of whiskey.

Elena couldn't come close to holding back her smile. "That's funny, because I was going to say she reminds me a lot of you. We should probably handle her the same way – you're pretty similar."

"Not even close," Damon swirled his drink again. "For instance: I have a nice buzz."

"Good point, hopefully we don't have another drunk on our hands." Caroline pointed out. Damon was not impressed with the comment but stopped glaring when he got an equally fierce glare from the brunette that had stepped between the two.

"Don't mess this up, Damon. Evel-_Evie _could really help us out. Don't drive her away just because you're a jerk."

"You expect so much of me," Damon's sarcasm was biting.

"We should talk about that too," Stefan stood up and leaned against the chair, his eyes now focused on Damon. "Why do we think she is close with all of us but she's never met you?"

"I'd like to think future-me smartened up and got away from you death-magnets," Damon smiled somewhat dreamily. "Oh, what a day that will be."

"And if that's not the case?" Stefan said a little more darkly. Caroline creased her eyebrows.

"What do you mean?"

"Have any of you wondered if maybe she hasn't met him because he's not around? And if it's possible that him not being around was not his choice?" Stefan asked looking at each of them carefully. "What if Damon doesn't make it to the future she's seen?"

"Are you saying that you think_ I_ die before _you_ idiots?" Damon scoffed. "Please."

"Stefan's right, I mean, it is a possibility..." Damon could see Elena's mind creating gruesome images for her. He almost didn't mind her worrying.

"You never know..."

"No, I do know. And I know I'll do anything to survive – including leave all you and your little friends behind. I'm done with this conversation." Damon didn't even want to finish his drink anymore before he put it down and went toward the door.

"Where are you going?" Caroline asked nervously.

"Out. Some of us have lives to live – _that's_ probably why that little brat never met me, anyway." And with a quick detour to grab his leather jacket from the closet, Damon was gone.

"I think we have a problem," Stefan said as soon as he was gone. "I'm serious about what I said. I think it's a bad sign that Evie hasn't seen Damon around in her time – I think we should try and dig more into it."

"But there isn't much we can do about it, is there? I mean, she hadn't even _heard _of him – it's not like we could stop it from happening if she doesn't know what or when something bad were to happen." Elena frowned. "He's not going to let us go around protecting him for any given amount of time."

"Maybe we shouldn't be protecting him," Caroline said nervously. "I mean, maybe I've just watched too many movies but...isn't it kind of a rule that you shouldn't try to change the future?"

All three of them looked around at each other nervously, the idea seemed damning, ludicrous, and inexplicable all at once. What would happen if they _didn't_ protect Damon – would he die? Would he be able to get himself out of any situation he got himself into? He hadn't always in the past. Would Damon just run away? It was obviously a possibility that he really _had _smartened up and run away from Mystic Falls. It was also a possibility that he had not come back because he couldn't draw attention to himself being in the same place and never aging...but then why wouldn't Evie had at least _heard _of him? All three of them were still in this pensive state when Bonnie shuffled down the stairs, looking very concentrated at something or other. Evie was close behind her.

"Bonnie!" Elena sighed, relieved for some break of tension. "How'd it go? Can she do magic?"

"She's a witch," Bonnie nodded.

"Great! Well, what happened? Did she call for help?" Elena asked with a large smile, looking up to Evie happily. Evie, shockingly, gave a small smile back.

"She did."

"Well, what'd she do? Who's coming?" Caroline, also came up where Elena stood, closer than where she had been earlier, and gave Evie a smile. She gave the same tight smile but looked away so that she wouldn't catch either girls eye.

"Sorry guys but I had to take a blood vow...I can't tell you what happened up there." Bonnie looked back at Evie, who by now was studying the mahogany railings of the stairs above her head.

"'You can't tell us'?" Caroline repeated in shock. "Bonnie, we're part of this too. We're your best friends!"

"Apparently we're _her _friends," Elena added with a nod toward Evie, who looked at her a little sadly.

"You are. But I have to keep in mind that you're also very young vampires who don't have a check over your emotions," Evie's voice sounded cooler and Elena watched as her face melted back into a hard expression – it was almost shocking how reminiscent it was to Damon. But being distracted by that or not, she was quick to explain how she did not like that there were secrets being kept from her. Evie only shrugged her shoulders noncommittally. "Sorry guys, you'll have to be kept in the dark until I can be sure you can take it."

"It's fair," Bonnie assured Evie, looking over her shoulder as they had some sort of private agreement. She looked back to her friends before nodding her head and saying it again, "it's fair."

"I'm going upstairs to sleep. Tomorrow we should probably get cracking on figuring out where in history I am and what to prepare for next. I remember a lot of the stories from the early 2000s and you guys don't normally get long breaks between disasters," Evie said with a slight sigh, watching while they all nodded a little morosely. "And tell Damon that if he locks me in the bathroom again, this time I'll throw the safety pin in his eye."

"Goodnight, Evie," Bonnie smiled softly. Again, shockingly, Evie's rough and tough demeanor disappeared for just a quick second when she gave Bonnie a smile – a tight and nervous one, but a smile nonetheless – before she turned and kicked it in high gear to her bedroom.

"You can't _tell _us?" Caroline repeated a little more darkly now that the new witch was gone. "What kind of friend are you?"

"A worried one," Bonnie responded. "She'll be a help, but it's definitely not what I was expecting."

"Not what you're expecting?" Stefan asked skeptically. "And she made you take a vow of silence?"

"Something like that," Bonnie shook her head, letting out a deep sigh as she walked to the couch and fell down on it, exhaustion written over her features.

"Why can't you tell us what happened, Bonnie?" Elena asked worriedly. "Are you sure we can trust her?"

"I told you already: Evie's the real deal," Bonnie confirmed. "But I can't explain why. I already told you why I can't and...ugh – I'm sorry."

"It's okay," Elena sighed, leaning against the railing and looking at Stefan and Caroline. "It's just one more thing we need to figure out before the world starts falling apart again, right?"

* * *

Damon didn't even want to finish the drink in his hand. His scotch on the rocks had melted and been left looking like a watery soup that no longer smelt like a way to forget his problems. The grill was busy for a Thursday night, but most of the people sitting there were annoying teenagers that were out with groups of friends. He could hear all of their petty conversations – none of them even knew that people were dying under their noses. Then again, half the time they just ended up coming back to life anyway, so it barely seemed worth it to freak them all out.

"Get him another," a soft voice said from beside him. He didn't need to turn his head to watch the blonde vampire sit beside him to know who it was. Instead of gracing her with his time, he watched to make sure that the bartender didn't use the cheap stuff for his drink.

"You should know better than to talk to me right now, Rebekah."

"And you should know better than to threaten me right now," Rebekah said simply, taking a sip of some fruity drink. The coconut smelt revolting. "I watched my brother be staked."

"Yeah and he deserved it," Damon muttered. "I saved your ass from being staked too. In return I would have preferred you not killing Elena just to prove you're _sad_."

"I did it to spare us all from death," Rebekah explained with a low voice. "You forget that the only way Alaric could die was if Elena died first."

"And at the time you killed her did you happen to know she'd had vampire blood?" Rebekah took a sip of her drink, not backing down from his glare, but not saying a word against it. "Thought not."

"Now we don't have to worry about your lineage dying," she sounded nearly defensive. "You, Caroline, Elena, and even Stefan will all be safe and sound now that Alaric is dead."

"Are you leaving town?"

She shook her head, frowning a little. "I think I'll clean things up here a bit, first."

"Because you do such a good job," he said sarcastically.

"I'm staying anyway, Damon."

"Then I'm still at risk of killing whichever one started my bloodline, aren't I?" Damon sneered back at her. She raised her eyebrows, not amused by his threat, but rather surprised by it. She watched him for a moment with narrowed eyes, sizing up the threat before shaking her head.

"You wouldn't risk that of Elena."

"Well, it wouldn't _be _for Elena. I'd be killing you because_ I_ felt like it." Rebekah snorted, but took a sip of her drink to avoid saying anything more that could insult him. She knew that he could never manage to kill her, but she didn't really want to have to make him try.

"We all thought that Klaus fathered your bloodline, Damon." Rebekah said deliberately, making sure he was paying attention. "But that he didn't means we don't know who did – whoever turned Mary must have been turned by one of us. It wouldn't be smart to kill any of us not knowing that."

"You know," Damon growled, finishing off his drink. "You ruined my buzz. And if another girl ruins my buzz today, I _will _kill someone."

Without needing to say anything else to the Original, Damon stood up and walked out of the bar. He'd let Rebekah pay his tab, even if she would just compel the bartender to forget the drinks had been ordered. It was a small service after she had turned Elena into a vampire.

Well no, technically he had done that – though not intentionally. It wasn't fair that Elena thought it was his fault for turning her when his blood had been taken from him. And it wasn't his fault that Dr. Idiot had decided to clear whatever cerebral damage she had with his blood...but Elena still blamed him. She'd screamed it after it had been explained to her and she'd given him the cold shoulder ever since.

The walk home was nicer than he would have thought a walk all the way back to the Salvatore boarding house would be – maybe it was because there wasn't any danger for once? He tried to think it all through but it was almost too much to take in over the short amount of time it had happened in: Klaus was dead. The hybrids must have been dead, too. The Originals were settling down after their brothers death. Alaric – super vampire and vampire slayer Alaric – was dead. The only witches in town were currently staying under his roof.

Ironically, it was like there was no danger at all.

How long would that last?

"Damon, you're back." Elena seemed shocked when he walked in, looking up from a big, dusty tome that was sitting in her lap. He raised an eyebrow.

"Isn't it past your bedtime?"

"I was just doing some research," she closed the book and tucked it a bit behind her. Using some of the supernatural speed that Elena didn't quite understand enough to stop him, he picked the book up and looked at the old cover. It was one of his father's old books, one of the ones that had a treasury of everyone in Mystic Falls. Some of the pages looked newer – Stefan seemed to have kept it updated.

"Fun research."

"I'm looking up the name 'Austen'," she grabbed the book back from him. "So far I haven't found anything."

"Oh," he smirked. "So I guess you don't quite trust little Evie-Bo-Peep either."

"It's not that I don't trust her," she said defensively, tucking the book into her chest. "It's that it just seems so...I mean, I have a baby when I'm 22? And it just so happens to turn into this girl from the future who is a Bennett witch and related to me and who comes out to help us?" She sighed. "I was just trying to see if I would know who I'm apparently supposed to have a baby _with _in her world."

"In her world of pretend? Probably no one," Damon took the book from her again, leafing through the pages. He had used to love the game of counting how many of these people he'd killed.

"Fine, you don't believe her. But let's say, just hypothetically, that she was telling the truth."

"Hypothetically?" Damon repeated, glancing up at her as she sighed.

"Yes."

"Then, _hypothetically_, she's generations younger than you and the person you sleep with probably isn't named Austen and is probably not in this book..." he paused, pointing at the book with raised eyebrows. "Oh wait, yes I am."

"Damon," she growled, taking a step back when he winked at her.

"What? I am, look." He pointed out his own name, right beside Stefan's and underneath his father's. It had been faded over time, but his name was still there – the only sign besides memories that he had ever been normal. Elena rolled her eyes at him before sighing and moving to lean against the back of the couch.

"I'm just worried."

"You're always worried," Damon waved off, flipping through the book again.

"What if I really wasn't supposed to turn into a vampire and Evie dies because of it?"

"Evie's going to die because of a vampire, but I doubt it's going to be your fault." Damon smirked, watching as Elena's face fell from worry and into a look of irritated determination.

"Damon, promise me you won't kill Evie."

"I will not." It was simple and it was true, Damon would be the one to kill Evie if she stepped out of line. And he would damn well enjoy it.

"Damon, promise me." Elena's voice was even more serious now. It was like she was trying to imitate him – it was almost cute, were he not so frustrated that everyone kept trying to humanize him and keep him from killing when he was mad. They needed to stop expecting so much from him – he liked killing. It was in his nature to kill. So he wanted to kill Evie. Because he knew that Evie was a liar and would get them all into more trouble than they would already get themselves into without her help.

"I promise I won't kill Evie...as long as she doesn't screw us over."

"That's the best I'll get?" Elena asked with a sigh.

"That's better than I'd give less sexy people," he offered with a smirk. She rolled her eyes.

"Well, if it's the best I'll get, I guess it's fair. But you shouldn't just go around threatening her. It'll make her feel like-" but Elena didn't get to finish before there was a loud knock on the door. Both she and Damon turned to look at the door in suspicion but neither of them seemed to be able to move while they listened for sound on the other side of the door. There was nothing – no heartbeat, no breathing, no movement.

"Since when were we so popular?"

Another silence.

"It's a vampire, isn't it?" Elena asked quietly. Damon wanted to laugh at her for whispering – if it were a vampire, it would be able to hear her very clearly. He refrained, knowing how delicate being able to talk to her already was.

"Probably another squatter – I don't care how big my house is, I like being here _alone_."

Elena looked at Damon with a frown before standing to head for the door. Before she could, Damon was sure to get to the door first. As much as they were at odds since she blamed him for everything and he was upset that she was so against him, Damon couldn't help the instinct to protect the bitch.

He looked at Elena, trying to tell her to stay back – but she fought his glare to come stand over his shoulder, just as Bonnie had the night before. He was quick when he pulled open the door, trying to catch whoever was there off guard. But when he saw the person on the other side of the door – at ease and lounging against the doorway he had to furrow his eyebrows. He was tempted to look behind his shoulder to see the mirror image of who he was currently looking in the eye...no, not a mirror image. He knew those eyes well and the mischief in them could never be mirrored in Elena's.

_Katherine._

"Great," Damon smiled sarcastically. "_Now_ I get to kill Evie."

* * *

**Did Evie really bring Katherine to help? Oh dear, she'll be in deep trouble if she did. Tell me what you all think!**

**To my reviewers from the last chapter:**

_Laurafxox_**: I'm glad you like it. There will be a lot of questions like the ones you've already asked, but the mystery of what happens to Damon is unnerving, isn't it? Thank you for reviewing, hope you liked this chapter as well!**

_alwaysxlove_**: It does happen ALL the time. I was a fan of Stefan when he was ripper-Stefan, because when he's normal-Stefan he's so 2-dimensional. ****I'm glad that you like my portrayals of the characters, hopefully you like how the story evolves. Thanks for reviewing!**

_KyaraSalvatore_**: I'm glad you like it, thanks for the review :)**

**Remember, reviews are riveting :)**


	5. The History of Mystic Falls

**Here's chapter four! Thank you for all those who have reviewed, alerted or favourited this story – this chapter is for you :)**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

**Summary:** Post 3x22. Bonnie realizes that she's lost control over what's happened in Mystic Falls and after making a quick decision, she calls for help. Help ends up being "Evelina Austen", a familiar face coming back to Mystic Falls. Why does she look so much like a doppelgänger and why did she answer the spell? And why, oh why, does she consort with the bad guys? Damon/OC slight Klaus/OC

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Chapter Four – The History of Mystic Falls

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"Ugh," Evelina grumbled as she stomped her way down the stairs, running one hand through messy curls and the other over an irritated face. "Vampires or not, you're morons if you think that 2am constitutes 'talking in the morning'."

"Did you and Bonnie forget to mention something?" Damon asked with fake enthusiasm, throwing a pointed glare over toward the couch where she saw Elena was standing in front of it – she was standing in front of the couch quite sourly, in fact. Maybe that was because on the couch, lazing across it as if she owned the cool leather, sat Katerina Petrova.

To every vampire's surprise, Evie did not look shocked by the woman spread across the furniture. Instead, rolled her head back and let out a loud sigh. "Oh, thank god you got here quick! Were you close by?"

"_What_?"

Full attention was on the girl so tired she was still in her pajamas. Which were too small – Elena would never have come down in the shorts she slept in, nevertheless the shorts she slept in and a wife beater. Evie, however, didn't even seem to notice that she was barely clad and luckily everyone else was too distracted from the insinuation of what she had just said.

"I'm sorry," Elena shook her head in disbelief. "Did you _want _her here?"

"I told you I was calling for help, didn't I? Who'd did you think I was going to call?" Evie scoffed. "It's not like I was going to call over a vampire hunter or a werewolf assassin – that'd be as helpful as calling over someone to feed you raw steak. You guys called me to help and told me that we have _real_ problems; so we need _real_ solutions. The best solution I can think of is someone with power and someone with connections – since I don't know exactly when I am yet, the first person I thought of was Katherine. She's pretty solid for these kinds of things."

"You _knowingly _brought her here?" Stefan asked with venom, taking a step forward and pointing a finger at Katherine, who didn't even looked phased by the reaction. "Do you know what she's done to us? You lied when you said you knew about the history here, because she _destroyed our lives. _It's not like we could trust her with anything, anyway-"

"And it's not like I know you," Katherine finally voiced, putting her feet down on the ground to look a little less relaxed. Evie knew that it was really so she could run away faster if she needed to. "But I'd be stupid if I didn't say you look familiar."

Evie smiled at the cynical remark, shoving her hand toward Katherine enthusiastically. "Evie Austen, descendant of the doppelgängers and the Bennett witches. I'm not quite what you would call 'from around here'. Oh, and you wouldn't know yet, but you and I become pretty good comrades."

"Comrades?" Katherine asked doubtfully, looking at Evie's hand in suspicion and not going close to shake it. Evie almost laughed at the predictable reaction.

"Well, okay, maybe comrades is the PG term. Our relationship is a closer to bribing each other for help and information…which usually includes some witty repartee…but for the time being, 'comrades' seems like a good plug." She kept her hand held out towards Katherine. Katherine raised an eyebrow before taking hold of the hand and shaking it – she had a good handshake, firm and confident. Katherine couldn't help but grin.

"Hmm, I like you." Elena was shocked, Katherine wasn't one for fast decisions. "At least you're not a bore."

"Wait until you get me drinking," Evie smirked back to her, before Katherine sat back down on the couch as if the conversation was over.

It was eerie, how alike Katherine and Evie looked. Elena looked closer to Katherine than Evie did – when they were all put together the differences were more noticeable because they couldn't just put off the differences between Elena and Evie to being similarities between Katherine and Evie. Now, though, the similarities between the two curly haired girls was shocking – the expressions, the confidence, the dark and dangerous flash to their eyes when they were annoyed…it was like they were looking into the future undoing of themselves. Damon's first instinct was to run.

"So _before _anyone here kills me-"

"You read my mind," Damon hissed to the girl, his eyes going dark just as the scene played in his minds eye. It made it even sweeter that she looked like Katherine – it was like a double dose of revenge for trusting people when he shouldn't have.

"Why don't we talk it out like mature supernatural beings?" Evie finished. She took a seat on the couch, sat right next to Katherine. Evie's posture and the shadows in her eyes mimicked Katherine's dangerously, but when she looked to Elena it was a noticeable change – a look of something close to desperation. "Please?"

Elena shook her head, running a hand through her hair – just as Evie did, Stefan couldn't help but note. "I still don't see why Katherine needs to be here. She doesn't help with anything-"

"I resent that. I thought I did a good job helping you out – at great personal risk, may I add? That I happened to run after Mikael was killed is not that important. Besides," she cast a quick glance over to Evie. "She thinks like I do...so I'm interested in what she has to say. What's your story?"

"Will you guys sit down?" Evie asked levelly, looking at Stefan, Elena, and Damon with a neutral expression that didn't give anything away until she sighed in irritation. "Fine, if you won't will someone record all this for Caroline and Bonnie?"

"Those two are still alive?" Katherine nearly chuckled darkly. Even Evie turned bitter eyes on the mocking tone of her words. "Have to hand it to blondie, she's lasted a lot longer than I'd planned."

"You'd planned to have Klaus kill her." Elena seethed.

"Details," Katherine shrugged in boredom. "Besides, Klaus is dead anyway. That problem is solved."

Anyone in the room would have been able to notice that beside her, Evie had stiffened.

"What's the matter, Evie?" Damon asked tauntingly. "Bitten off more than you can chew?"

Her dark gray eyes snapped to Damon in a way that made them look as if a thunderstorm raged behind them. He'd taken great note of the differences in her eye colour, but he had never seen that emotion or that _rage _behind them. The colours looked like they were tumbling over each other in a cyclone of shades and tints. He couldn't even tear his eyes away to notice that Elena and Stefan were looking at each other worriedly, Katherine's eyes had narrowed.

"Call Bonnie," the spell – whatever spell the bitch had put on him – had broken. He could look away from her as soon as those eyes turned to Elena. "Now!"

"I'll do it," Stefan stumbled with a heavy brow. He pulled out his cell phone, moving into the kitchen while he dialed the girls – who were both in bed. While he began doing this, Evie was suddenly very different in the living room. It was almost like she had finally noticed herself…first she was rubbing down her bare legs, then pulling at her hair, she'd run her hand over her face, and finally steadied her breathing – which had quickly turned jagged – before repeating the pattern again. Elena looked at her nervously, but was cut off by her mirror image raising an eyebrow.

"What's wrong with you?" Not as polite as Elena would have been, but essentially the same sentiment.

"Nothing, I'm going to get changed. If I'm not back, yell when they're here." Evie quickly moved to her room, pushing her hands through her hair all the way up the stairs and away from view. Katherine wasted no time in turning to Elena and Damon – the only two left in the room with her.

"So to get things straight: you're a vampire," she pointed to Elena. "She's our ancestor _and _a witch," she pointed up the stairs to where Evie had just disappeared. "Bonnie brought her here and she called for _me_?"

"Crazy, isn't it?" Damon asked with a sarcastic smile. "We just love making our lives difficult."

"Well, at least this new member of your merry band of misfits has some brains," Katherine stretched her hands above her head. "She's a survivor, I can tell."

"How?" Elena couldn't help but ask, luckily she was still able to keep her tone laced with distain. She was positive she could always keep things like that with this woman around her – Stefan was not exaggerating when he said that this woman had ruined their lives as they knew it. Katherine smirked at her.

"For a start, she knew well enough to call me."

"They're coming now," Stefan walked back into the room, looking at everyone with a frown. "Why do you think she was suddenly so adamant on getting Bonnie here?"

"Maybe she needs to do a spell," Elena shrugged with a grimace – it didn't seem realistic. She was about to defend her statement by reminding Stefan that she would only do magic with Bonnie near her, but she quickly decided it was a bad idea. She wasn't sure how much she wanted to tell Katherine and she definitely wasn't sure how much Katherine _wanted _to know – because if Katherine wanted to know, they would not tell her. They had no reason to trust her and really, she shouldn't trust them. Elena could almost see Damon itching to go forward and stake her.

"Maybe she just feels safer with her," Stefan offered. "Damon _has _been threatening to kill her."

"Not threatening," the older brother corrected with a scoff. "_Planning_."

"And you're sure that you can trust her?" Katherine asked with a frown.

"I believe that Bonnie brought her from the future and Bonnie asked for help," Elena said determinedly, but she couldn't answer that question anymore. Not after who she had brought here…said woman snorted.

"Sure, even I believe that the witch chickened out and did that," Katherine chuckled. "I more meant do you actually trust what she's saying? There's no doubt she's related to a doppelgänger , I wouldn't even doubt she's a Bennett witch – but how do you know she's on _your_ side?"

"What do you mean on 'our side'?" Elena asked. "How could she not be on the good side?"

"Of course she's on our side," Stefan agreed with a frown, though he did not sound convinced.

"See, that's the thing about 'sides'," Katherine pointed out as she stood and leant against the fireplace.

"What about them?"

"Some people are on the 'good' side, some people are on the 'bad' side…and then there's this other group of people," she turned her eyes to Damon with a wink. "This group of people like you and me, we're the people who don't choose sides. We'd prefer to _survive_. So what proof do you have she's on _your _side? If she were smart, she'd be on her own side. That's always the surviving side."

"Not everyone thinks like you, Katherine." Stefan hissed.

"But she does," Katherine smirked, pushing off the fireplace to be face to face with the other doppelgänger .

" Evie ison our side, because it _is_ herside." Elena sneered confidently. "If something happens in the past it could directly affect something that happens in her future. If she's not on our side, she might not have a side to pick from later on."

"You're all so quick to trust," Katherine sighed as if she were bored.

"I disagree," Damon raised his drink to her and took a sip of it before placing it down on the table beside him. It was not enough to distract from this conversation anymore.

"That trust is what got every single one of you turned," she argued, her eyes hardening as she looked at the young vampires in front of her. "I'll stick around to hear what the kid has to say – you know how much I love stories – but I'm not sticking around if it looks like you're all going to be stupid again. As I said, I'm a survivor…" her eyes flickered to Elena nastily. "And most people around you die."

Damon sneered and grabbed Katherine by the throat, holding her against the wall for a moment and watching her eyes almost spark back to life before she breathed out a quick, "you might need me, Damon. And as much-" he tightened his grip. She winced and tried to drag in another breath. "As much as you hate it, you're too much of a survivor to throw away that chance, too."

Damon thought about that for a long time. There was a part of him – a very large part – that would love to get the revenge he'd always looked forward to: staking the little bitch who caused him to run around like a chicken with its head cut off. He'd love to torture her and hurt her and watch her cry and beg and say that she always loved him most…

He let her go.

"So hotheaded," she purred, walking away from his hands to continue lounging on the couch. As she made her way, they could hear Evie was done changing. They heard her walking down the hall and down the stairs – no one said a word in the meantime.

She came down dressed in Elena's clothes again…and again they didn't look like Elena's clothes in all. Elena would never have worn those black skinny jeans with a black shirt and a black necklace. She never would have tied her hair up in that wild and messy way. She never would have let her bra straps show or have let the shirt ride up to show her midriff or…well. She wouldn't wear it like that at all and Damon knew she would never take the chance to somehow make it look almost…_sexy._

Damon grabbed the drink he didn't care for and finished the rest of it.

"Alright, let's pull out some more seats for when Bonnie and Care get here-" again with the nickname, it almost made Elena trust her in itself. "I want everyone to be comfortable, this may take a while…and I want Bonnie and I to be sat as far away from _him_ as possible."

Her finger pointed to Damon, who rolled his eyes. He moved over, ignoring the request for a chair, to discard his empty glass of whiskey. He tested the amount in the bottle, debating another for this 'powwow'. "I'll get myself drunk to slow down my reflexes, if you want."

"'If youwant'?" Evie mocked. "I can see you jonesing for booze like you jones for blood. Whatever drives your car, man."

"Drives your car?"

"Right, you still have to drive your cars yourself – personally, I enjoy getting to drive once and a while when the cops won't ticket me, but there's something to be said about never having to look at the raili-" she stopped herself with a wave of her hand. "Right, your cars are still on the ground. Whatever, it's an expression from my time. I'll have to learn to adjust."

They – they being Stefan, Elena and Evie – arranged the living room so that there would be the necessary seven seats available for everyone to rest in. It didn't take long and by the time she was finished, Evie sat down at her seat and took deep breaths. The vampires could almost taste the anxiety pouring out of her. She looked over to the bottle of whiskey sitting on the table longingly.

"Yeah, _I'm _jonesing," Damon accused mockingly. "Touch it and die."

"You're such a jer-" she gasped. "Oh my god...what's the age limit on alcohol this decade?"

"Twenty-one," Damon smirked.

She swore loudly. "I knew it wasn't for another…half century or whatever before people got smart and lowered it! Now I can't even swing for old enough. God, I hope I kept Elodie's old identity card – wait, I don't remember if they have identity scans back then…back _now_…ugh!"

"How old _are _you?" Elena asked, leaning forward in her own chair, sat between where Bonnie would sit and Stefan already had taken.

Evie made a sour face, they could almost watch some sort of memory play behind her eyes. "I'm the baby sister. When I left, I was just turning eighteen. Had another two months to go."

"I meant…" Elena let out a little laugh before catching Damon's glare and clearing her throat. "I meant, when are you from?"

"Honestly, I don't think that's really important." She looked almost nervous. "Bonnie and I did some talking about it and she thought it'd be best if I didn't say anything. You know, in case I let something slip about the future that you're not supposed to know about. If you knew when I'm from you'd know when the dates were…and if you happened to prepare for it, that could change the entire outcome. Which could change everybody's future…and in the future I'm from, you're all pretty content."

Elena hummed, her eyes quickly shooting to Damon. Damon narrowed them slightly at her, if she said _anything _in front of Katherine, he would kill her…

"Alright, just tell me…are you between four or five hundred years in the future?" Stefan asked. She shrugged.

"Approximately."

"Well, that keeps the timeframe about right," Stefan said to the others. "A doppelgänger usually comes every four to five hundred years."

Katherine and Elena nodded, they both knew this, but Evie just rolled her eyes.

"I told you, I'm not a doppelgänger ."

"But-"

"No, I _can't _be a doppelgänger . Besides the vampire and werewolf hybrids, you can't be two things at once. It's forbidden by nature and nature hates the hybrids – hence why the curse was put on the Original one. I am a witch. Therefore there is no way I'm a doppelgänger . I just happen to look a lot like you…" she leaned back in her seat. "Though I have much better fashion sense."

Elena laughed out loud, enjoying how the simple statement almost immediately broke some of the tension in the room. "You're wearing _my_ clothes."

"I'm making them look good."

"You just said you look like me."

"That's on you, not me." She smiled to Elena, a full smile – one that suddenly made her look much more like Elena than like Katherine – it was only enhanced as she ran her hand through her hair again, like Elena always did. "Don't worry – I hate what's in style in my time. Nymphos design them: all they do is make it easy for anyone to fantasize about anyone else."

"Sounds great," Damon smirked, taking another sip of whiskey.

"Typical," but it had come out from three mouths in three very different ways. All three of the doppelgängers – or the two doppelgängers and the witch who looked like one – looked at each other awkwardly…they had just said something all at the same time. Sure; Katherine's had sounded biting, Elena's had sounded mocking, and Evie's had sounded like a scoff…but it still sent shivers down each person's spine.

"Hello?" Both Bonnie and Caroline stepped into the house, looking around nervously at the group of people that were circled around the living room. The distraction was nice and Evie's face dropped, she clearly meant business.

"Sit down, we all need to have a good, long chat."

"Okay…" Caroline sat in her place between Stefan and Damon, but quirked her head quickly. "Is there a reason that there are now _three _doppelgängers in this house?"

"I'm not a-" Evie sighed in frustration. "I brought Katherine here. She's going to help us."

"Possibly," Katherine pointed out.

"I'll convince you," Evie promised. She looked to Bonnie, her face still taught. "Sit."

Everyone sat down, looking around the circle nervously. Between Katherine's mere presence, Damon's urge to kill pretty much everyone in the room, and Evie's stern glare at Bonnie – the circle was tense.

"Alright," Evie started. "I'm probably going to change something very directly related to my future – but first, I want to know why exactly I'm about to lay down a bomb. So, what has happened in the last..." she frowned. "I don't know. What's happened? How about we start with Elena becoming a vampire."

And so the story began. Elena had decided to start from the beginning, going into detail about meeting Stefan and then meeting Damon, having Katherine come into their lives and finding out she was a doppelgänger , her unfortunate and very bloody introductions to each of the Originals-

"So you've already met them," Evie smiled slightly. "Good. I know you probably don't trust him yet, but I promise you that Elijah saves your life multiple times in the future. I suggest if we're going to fix everything gone wrong, we start trusting people."

"Easy for you to say," Damon hissed. "We don't trust you."

"All the more reason," she scowled back. "Keep going."

So the story continued. It continued through Katherine turning Caroline and triggering Tyler's curse for the ritual, how Klaus killed Jenna and became a hybrid, to Klaus finding the solution to creating his own hybrids. They talked about Esther's return, Finn's try at sacrifice, to what happens when an Original dies – how it will take out all of its lineage. Evie listened with surprising focus. She listened while they explained about Alaric turning into the ultimate vampire killer-

"Alaric Saltzman?" She asked. Elena nodded sadly. "You talked about him really often…I'm sorry. But we can continue with that later."

"There are things to continue with?" Damon couldn't help but ask, luckily he didn't seem to eager asking.

"Later."

Though they were all interested, they continued the story – how Alaric staked Klaus, how Klaus died. Rebekah went to go on the run and realized that if she killed Elena, Alaric would die…there was a long moment of silence once this was finished. Everyone was thinking through the memories, trying to ingest everything again. They had never taken an actual inventory of everything that had happened and to have it all laid out was not only painful, but terrifying.

"Alright," Evie almost looked nervous. She swallowed thickly, the vampires could hear that her heart was beating quickly in her chest. Elena had to swallow as well. "First of all, I wanted to say I'm sorry. I'm sorry that you went through all that bloodshed…but you need to know that it doesn't get better. It _never _gets better. In my time," Evie began slowly, "there's…I guess you could call it a war. It's species against species…vampires against witches against humans against werewolves against hybrids-"

"But the hybrids are dead," Caroline pointed out, her voice thick.

"They're not dead." Evie said sternly, she turned to the group again as if no one had said anything at all. "Everyone is against everyone else…it's a stupid war. We could make everything work if people just put their prejudices aside, but no one will make the first move because everyone's afraid they'll be made an example of. Which, admittedly happens often…" Evie's cheeks started to burn uncharacteristically and her heart started to beat faster like it had before she'd gone to change. "Now I finally realized where the separation began."

"What do you mean?" Stefan asked. "The separation between species?"

"Bonnie," Evie turned to her, looking at her intensely. Bonnie looked almost scared too. "You hate vampires. You always have and I knew that from the talks we had when I'd try to channel the witches. You hate anything that you think isn't linked to nature…and I tried not to judge you for it. But you have something really important you need to tell these people and if you won't tell them: I will."

"What is she talking about, Bonnie?" Elena asked nervously.

"Please, no…" Bonnie whispered to her. "This isn't important, it's not what the problem is anymore…"

"It's exactly what the problem is in _both _our times," Evie was suddenly looking like her bitchy self again. Her eyes were narrowed at Bonnie in almost an intimidating way. They had a stare-down, it was the only thing that dark glare could have been called. When Bonnie backed down, turning her eyes to her lap and shaking her head slightly, Evie turned back to the others with a haughty look.

"I'm sorry," Bonnie whispered quietly. Evie ignored her.

"Niklaus was the beginning of your bloodline. You're all his descendants. I know this because he told me."

"He told you?" Katherine repeated irritably. "Klaus is dead."

"No," Bonnie whispered, her voice shaking. "No, he's not."

* * *

**Cats out of the bag! Oh man and Bonnie is totally going to be in trouble. To my reviewers:**

_Beckah Salvatore-Winchester_**: I'm glad you like it so far, thank you for the review!**

_KyaraSalvatore_**: Thanks for the review, hope you liked it :)**

**Well guys, thanks so much for the support. I'm glad you all seem to be liking it enough to follow and read but please let me know what you think by leaving me a **_**REVIEW**_**! **

**-Egypt**


	6. Upsetting Truths

**Last chapter got some very positive response, it's so exciting how many people are interested in the story now. Let me just tell you, what you're reading is only the beginning. The things I have planned for this story, even I had trouble imagining at first - but don't worry, you won't have to wait too long. I'm on a roll with this whole idea :) Thank you to **_Angel of the Night Watchers_** for editing this chapter!**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

Chapter Five – Upsetting Truths

* * *

"Klaus is alive," Elena repeated slowly, looking between Bonnie and Evie slowly. "But Damon, you said-"

"I saw him get staked," Damon was thrumming with anger now. This little brat was calling _him _a liar? He was ready to tear her limb from limb - as if bringing Katherine here wasn't bad enough, now she was trying to scare them all over again. "I was there. He caught fire, he went all gray, it happened."

"His body was staked," Bonnie nodded, avoiding everyone's eyes. "But I had already helped to put him into another body."

"Another body?"

"Like when he was in Alaric's body," Stefan realized with a groan, standing up from his chair and placing his fist over his mouth again. He didn't want to talk about it anymore…now he just wanted to listen. He wanted to listen to the excuses Bonnie didn't want to give them.

"Exactly."

"Why the hell would you do that?" Damon asked, leaning forward with a growl. "After everything we planned, why the fuck would you do that?"

"We didn't know who started your bloodline…" she started slowly. "I didn't know how else to set everything right without killing anyone. He said he'd disappear and leave us alone if I did it - how could I say no?"

"'How could you say no'?" Elena repeated, her voice low. "Bonnie, he's tried to kill Jeremy, he's killed Jenna, he tried to use me as a human bloodbag-"

"He was the beginning of your bloodline," Evie supported slowly, though her eyes were dark on Bonnie. "In the end it's a good thing she did what she did or you would all be dead."

"Wait," Elena shook her head. She wasn't even ready to defend Bonnie, but to hear Evie doing it was just insulting. Evie had not lived through what they had lived through. It wasn't fair that she was picking sides, even if she looked pissed herself. "Whose body was it?"

Evie and Bonnie had another stare down that spoke volumes during the silence. It was the only thing such a dark glare could be used for - a private conversation built on secrets and lies. It was noticeable, the moment that Bonnie backed down. She turning her eyes to her lap and shook her head slightly, Evie hissed at her quietly.

"I'm going to take a stab in the dark here," Katherine cut in, breaking the quiet. "Tyler Lockwood?"

"What?" Caroline's eyes widened, looking between the doppelganger and her friend. "No, she wouldn't. You wouldn't, Bonnie…right?"

"Of course Tyler," Katherine continued with an eyeroll. "Klaus wouldn't give up being a hybrid now that he's finally managed it and blondie herself was the one who saw Tyler start to react to Klaus' death…which no one else did in his bloodline, assuming Evie's right. I'd bet Klaus was screwing with her."

"I'm sorry, Care…" Bonnie paused. "I did what I had to do."

"Then what happened to Tyler?" Caroline's eyes were full of enraged tears now. She looked like she was fighting the urge to strangle her and her eyes were darkening in a way that only vampires could accomplish. Bonnie leaned back as if that would make a difference.

"Tyler's still in there. Once we get Klaus out of his body Tyler will be as good as new."

"I _kissed _him!" Caroline raged, standing up and taking a step toward her before spinning around to hide her face that was changing into something a lot more terrifying. "Klaus was trying for all this time to get me to like him and I kept saying no, but he tricked me and I _kissed him_!"

"I'm sorry," Bonnie winced. "I just thought that with Klaus alive but staked he could get away from everyone and go live his life without having to worry about Alaric and you guys would all be safe…I never really thought about anything else that could happen because of it."

"You didn't think at all," Damon sneered, standing up as well.

"So you knew Klaus was alive because he makes it all the way to your time," Stefan said slowly, bringing the attention back to Evie, she nodded. "So nothing we ever try to do will work."

"You clearly haven't been paying attention," she muttered. "Klaus is the Original which turned your bloodline. If he dies, you all die. Not just you, but countless others. You are not the only vampires spawned by Klaus that make it to my time."

"What does Klaus do in your time?" Elena asked sadly, running a hand through her hair. "Does he still ruin people's lives?"

Evie fidgeted in her seat a bit. "I think that's one of those things I shouldn't say. He calms down, I guess. It's probably because he can't make anymore hybrids, what with both the doppelgangers being vampires. I think if he had the chance, he'd probably try making another army - there's a war on species when I'm from and threats in my time are much more intimidating than in yours. People need armies then."

"What if we could sever that tie?" Elena said suddenly, her voice containing an excitement that Evie couldn't seem to understand. Everyone turned to look at her, even Caroline who had begun to cry. "When Esther was going to tie Klaus to the other Originals and kill them all off, she did a spell that united them into one."

"Simple binding spell," Bonnie nodded, Evie shook her head at Bonnie.

"Not simple. Simple ingredients and effects, sure, but it takes a lot of channeling and a lot of energy. I don't know about you, but I'm not very good at either."

"Well what if we did the opposite?" Elena continued. "What if instead of joining people, we found a way to separate them? If we could do that then we could separate bloodlines - it won't matter who turned who."

"It's a good idea," Stefan offered, nodding his head. "But is it possible?"

Bonnie turned to Evie, who looked like she was wracking her brains for some sort of answer that she hadn't found yet. Bonnie cleared her throat for her attention, "Evie? This is kind of your niche. What do you think?"

Evie ran her hand through her hair again, just like Elena had done moments before, only she stopped and pulled at the tangles as if she were frustrated. "No," she shook her head. "Too many things can change if you do something like that."

"Too many things are already going to change," Damon argued. "Evelina-"

"Evie."

"Witch," he compromised with a roll of his eyes. "Elena's dead. She's a vampire. She has no way to continue your bloodline - you're dying anyway."

"_Damon_!"

"What? It's true. If she hasn't thought this through once, she hasn't thought it through a thousand times - who wouldn't think about the fact their bloodline was cut off early?" He shrugged. "So _Evie, _since you're stuck here - and for all we know it could be for the rest of your now nonexistent life - I think it'd be smart to make sure we're alive so we can save each other's asses. Just a suggestion."

Evie's gray eyes were storming again. It looked like a hurricane was brewing behind them while she looked at Damon as if he were less than the scum under her shoes. To be honest, it almost hurt Damon to see that look in her eyes. He'd seen that look before, a little too often and too recently, from Elena. To see it in someone else's eyes was painful, a further sign of all his hard work for hatred, even if he hated the little brat.

"Either way, Damon, you don't even make it to my future. So instead of saving your ass, I'll be staying far away from it. While I appreciate whatever is kind enough to put you out of your misery, I don't want to be around when it's still hungry."

A low blow, but an effective one. Both Evie and Damon tried to eviscerate each other with the harshest glares that they could muster; the room , the tension in the room was electric - ready to sting whoever moved first. No one seemed to want to be that person, it was like everyone was caught up in the glare themselves. Katherine and Bonnie were almost impressed with Evie's nerve, Elena, Stefan and Caroline were nearly nervous - it was like waiting for a bomb to detonate.

"Evie," Elena stated slowly, watching while Damon and Evie continued their war, not stopping or paying any mind that they heard her. "Evie…"

Evie took a long breath, shooting Damon a last glare before she seemed to decide he wasn't worth the time. It was a shocking difference when she finally turned to Elena, almost as if she wasn't angry at all - her sneer had spread into a smile so large it seemed to crack her face in two…Stefan was almost upset by it. It was a smile he had never seen on Katherine - but he knew the smile all too well from Elena.

"Yes?"

"Evie, what do you need…what do _we _need to keep everyone safe?"

"A hope, a prayer," she sighed in exhaustion. "And also to get me all the paperwork you have."

"Paperwork?" Caroline repeated with a frown.

"Grimoires, books, spells, journals, all the history you guys have documented." She rubbed her temple softly. "I'll look through everything you've got tomorrow, after I sleep, because time travel's a bitch. I need to look into a few things again - _refresh_- and I want to see what is possible to do in your time. There are things I know you haven't discovered yet that I need to read up on…and most of them can be found in Alaric Saltzman's office."

* * *

The fire was entrancing. It helped Damon's thoughts calm, which was a nice change from how he had felt for a majority of the night. Everyone in the house had gone their separate ways over two hours ago, Stefan and Elena had moved to their room upstairs, Katherine had inhabited the room right beside his own, and Caroline had driven home, leaving Bonnie to cab as she still didn't want to talk to the witch that had sacrificed her boyfriend. Evie had been the first to give in to her exhaustion, so she was asleep as well - which was good, because he never liked attacking people in their sleep. Maybe that would be her saving grace, considering he was still bristled by what Evie had dared to say to him and - though he would never admit it - he was upset over the truth of it.

The sound of footsteps interrupted him as he delved further into those thoughts and he groaned when he heard the heartbeat that accompanied the soft thump against the stairs. He could hear the exhaustion and annoyance in each of her steps forward, but he decided not to pay her any mind. He had nothing to say to the brat and he pointedly sighed when she pulled a chair to sit in front of the fire, right next to him.

"Can't sleep either?"

"What gave you that idea?" he asked smartly, he had no reason to be kind to her. He saw Evie shrug out of his peripheral, but he kept his eyes determinedly forward.

"I'm sorry for what I said. Kind of," she added, he could hear the small smile on her lips.

"No you aren't," he countered, finally turning to look at her. If a smile had been there, he could no longer see it. Her face was neutral and she was looking at him with those eyes again. Instead of looking like an angry hurricane, they now looked like calm, dark water staring at him - as if the anger had washed right out of her eyes.

"I am," she said simply. "I shouldn't have just rubbed it in your face like that. It's not right for me to rub it in that you might not make it to the future, even if you brutally shoved my face in the fact it won't be there for me to go back to."

"I haven't given it much thought," he looked back into the fire when he heard her snort.

"Liar," she accused lightly, she took to mimicking him. "If you haven't thought about it once, you haven't thought about it a thousand times. I'm guessing it's why you're still awake."

"I'm not really concerned. Like I told Stefan, I should hope by then I'd be away from these dangerous idiots. You heard the past year: anyone who wants to stay with them any longer than they have to has a death wish."

"But you love Elena," when he turned to look at her again, she didn't look confused but certain. It was like she knew it as a fact and didn't have to guess about it. He frowned at her.

"What would have made you think that?"

"The way you look at her," she smiled lightly, looking to the fire herself and letting it play across her face. Without having that smirk, or being able to see the mischievous twinkle in her eye as she was turned away, she looked unbearably like Elena. He found it hard to look away when she looked like at him like that, when she looked so like Elena and _wasn't _angry with him. "I've seen Elonnie's husband look at her like that. And my fiancé…he only asked me to marry him a week before Bonnie sent for me."

"That's tough," and for once, Damon could almost see eye to eye with her, remembering all of his problems in his love-life. She shrugged her shoulders.

"It wasn't really approved by anyone. My family hated him and even though his family liked me, I'm too young to get married. We were going to elope on my eighteenth birthday…" she paused. "Looks like I'm going to be a bit late."

"Why are you so quick to get married?" Damon scorned the very idea. "You're young, you have time. Or, well, you did-" she gave him a quick glare. "I don't want to get married at all. Be a free agent - they just drag you down or hurt you anyway."

"Ah," she smiled ironically - a cruel mix between both doppelgangers. "Let me guess - you fell in love with Katherine first, just like Stefan."

"Before Stefan, actually." He responded sourly. "He says it different, but I fell in love with her first. And then we both died for her. And then we both came back for her. Brother's until the end."

"Wait…you're brothers?" Her eyes widened. He nodded, looking surprised she didn't already know that. "_You're _the one he convinced to finish the transition? You're the one who…" she stopped herself, looking back into the fire. He could hear that her heart was beating faster, but he couldn't tell why. It looked like it was spawning from nervous energy. It made him queasy.

"I'm the one who _what_?"

"I just heard you were a royal pain in the ass," she covered. It would have been a good cover too, were it not for the fact he could hear her heart trying to beat its way from behind her ribs.

"You're not a bad liar," he complimented, looking back into the fire with her. It suddenly felt very wrong for the two of them to look at one another. "Do I become one of those bedtime stories you were talking about?"

"No," she whispered. "Not quite right for a bedtime story."

He paused, listening to her as she tried to regulate her breathing and calm down her pulse. It didn't work. And it didn't make him feel better that she was trying to hide the reaction for his benefit. It just made him realize what she was trying to tell him without saying a single word. It was a painful truth to hear and by her reaction, it was nearly as painful for her to remember. Or, more realistically, maybe it would just be painful in general.

"That bad, huh?" he asked lowly. She shook her head.

"Worse."

* * *

**Aww, not the best news for poor Damon, is it? But at least he and Evie were civil, if only for a few moments. Have any questions for me? I'm dying to hear what everyone's thinking! For my fantastic reviewers:**

_Laurafxox_**: I'm glad you liked the future references, it was kind of difficult to pull that off. I don't normally do futuristic story lines, so it took me a little bit to get into that kind of mindset. I love Damon when he's not as cynical as well, but until he actually admits his feelings to Evie, I don't see him playing nice. Don't worry, I'll keep it interesting until then and hopefully make it sweet when it happens! Thanks for reviewing!**

_ally0212_**: I can't tell you how much this review made my summer, as in my entire summer; maybe even more than that. It's so great to hear that you are drawn to my stories, even when you don't know they're mine. Honestly, I'm pretty sure I blushed as red as a tomato. Both of your ideas about why Damon and Evie did not meet in her future are great theories, it's very interesting hearing what everyone is saying because time warps and alternate realities **_**are **_**really hard to write and I went through about eight different plot ideas before I came up with this final storyline - you have to think really far ahead for plots like these. The big plot points are finally able to start coming out now that we have reintroduced Klaus and things are in a position to start moving again, which is exciting and I'm hoping that you enjoy what is to come. As for Damon needing a mix between Elena and Katherine: I completely agree. I think it's perfect for him. He needs someone who won't use him like Katherine did, but he needs someone to selfishly need him like Elena won't. After I decided that, Evie pretty much wrote herself. Thank you so much for your review and your support, reviews like yours are the reason I keep writing. **

_SomebodyWhoCares_**: The excitement continues! Thanks for reviewing :)**

_Angel of the Night Watchers_**: It's nice to see you back! The dialogue is actually so much fun to write, I find that dialogue is my favourite part of most of my stories, though I'm noticing similarities between the sass of some of my own characters...I'll have to keep an eye on that. Yes, I accidentally called her an ancestor once, the other time it was someone else referring to something else it looked like, but I'll make sure to check for that in each chapter. I'm glad you liked camp, it sounds like you had a great time. And I've been doing well, I don't want the summer to end - I live off of heat and sunshine. That sucks about your allergies, I've been getting pressure headaches with all the storms. I think I'm finally back into the groove or writing again, the GEM memorial chapters are super fun to write - thanks for the ideas and editing and being generally amazing!**

* * *

**Well, what did everything think? I'd love to hear theories, so please leave me one in a ****REVIEW****!**

**-Egypt**


	7. Honoria

**I'm so glad that people are starting to show some more interest in this story! Hopefully you all enjoy the next chapter :)**

* * *

Chapter Six – Honoria

* * *

"Well, this is it," Elena frowned, opening the door to the cool, dark house. Even being here was depressing and she wound her arms around herself. "This is Alaric's old house."

"Bachelor style," Evie nodded, stepping over the threshold. She continued moving in and looking around the house – it was unused and had probably been quite pleasant. As she moved in farther, however, she noticed that no one was following her. Bonnie had not been invited on this adventure considering how upset everyone was about the whole Klaus – conundrum and the others: Damon, Caroline, Katherine, Stefan and Elena were all waiting outside the door.

"Forgetting something?" Damon asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Right. Damn, I keep forgetting," she sighed, making a grand, swooping gesture toward the messy living room. "Please, come in to this house that I do not own or have never lived in."

Thanks to the magic words, the others came into the house.

"Why couldn't we come in? Isn't it when someone dies their house becomes free for the taking?" Elena asked, looking around at thin layer of dust that had already begun to settle over Alaric's possessions.

"The house isn't Alaric's," Evie answered distractedly, looking the house up and down as if she was looking for a trap door somewhere. "He signed it over for you and Jeremy at some point before Esther got to him. You always talked about how sweet it was. You said you moved in here when – " she stopped herself for a moment, shaking her head and deciding that it was too much information to share. "You'll end up moving in here."

"You know," Caroline started slowly, obviously not wanting to offend the witch in the room. "It's kind of weird having someone know your future and not tell you about it."

"You're telling me," Damon mumbled, going to sit down on the couch, even when Elena hissed at him that he should help the group of them. He, of course, ignored her with a shrug.

"I've told you a ton," Evie argued, giving Caroline a decisive frown. "Sure, I haven't given you a play – by – play but realistically you know more about the future than any other person on this god forsaken planet, so..."

"Except you," Katherine pointed out, making Evie smile.

"Except me."

"So what exactly are we looking for?" Stefan asked, going up from the living room and into the hallway. Elena dragged her eyes away from the scene – she had stabbed Alaric right there, when he already lay dying thanks to having stabbed himself. It was so recently and yet so far away, in an entirely different life.

"Anything that will help," Evie shrugged, pointing towards a bookshelf in the corner. "In the end, what I need to do is look inside the cave, I want the book on legends, books on the history would be nice, and I guess Bonnie's insinuating that we need the grimoire."

"Bonnie has the grimoire," Elena said slowly as her eyes slid over towards Caroline. Caroline was now frowning, she was still the most upset with her and something told Elena it was not going to be a 'forgive and forget' kind of argument. Then again, Elena didn't plan to forgive _or_ forget quite so easily, either.

"Great," Caroline muttered. "Who knows if she'll lie about where _that's _gone, too."

"Care – "

"I'm fine," Caroline snapped. "Let's just get her the pictures and all the stuff on the legends."

With the most annoyed vampire in the room now delegating the brigade, the entire group of them went to work with sorting out all the information that Alaric had in the house...there was a lot of it. It took a while to look through the entire house for everything they thought relevant and after they thought that it may be relevant they had to look through all the papers to make sure that everything on the subject was put together and that it was worth taking back to the boarding house with them.

Although Evie had only listed three things she wanted that she thought could be found in the house, she was picking up pieces of papers, binders, and folders from all over the house and sticking them in her arms. When she seemed to have no more space, she hauled them over on Damon who was still leaning against the back of the couch, decidingly not helping besides picking up a piece of stray paper or two and throwing it back in a pile that he decided wasn't worth examining.

Elena watched as Evie and Damon fought over what was important for a moment before she tread over to Stefan, who was sorting through pictures of vampires that Alaric had been watching – if they were dead he saw that they had been crossed out.

Elena was not in the list. Stefan, Damon, Katherine and Caroline had not been crossed out. But who would have thought that he would make it on his own hit list?

"Do you see anything different between those two?" Elena asked, looking over her shoulder towards Damon again, who was getting more paper dumped on him by little Evelina. Elena wondered if she looked that short beside him.

"Well, they're not fighting." Stefan noticed with interest.

"No, they're not," Elena sighed, listening as Stefan hummed to himself quietly.

"You think he'll try something stupid, don't you?"

"Of course I do, but I still hope he doesn't..." Elena sighed, watching while Damon dropped all the papers Evie had just given him down on the couch only to have her almost – doppelganger shove him right back toward what he'd dropped. "I don't think she'd let it slide."

"I don't know," Stefan frowned, his eyes watching them intently while he analyzed their interaction. He did not seem happy by what he saw. "Evelina's probably very lonely. Looking for acceptance. It would be hard coming to a time where you know everyone but they don't know you – I could see her finding comfort in something that is new to both her and to someone else. That way she doesn't have to pretend."

"So you think it could be a problem?" Elena asked, stopping with her search to look at the two of them as Damon tried to trip her. Evie gave him a hard punch on the shoulder before turning away from him. It couldn't be possible that Damon would fall for someone who looked just like her, the same way he had fallen for Elena because she looked just like Katherine? He couldn't really be that damaged and obsessed, could he?

"She's the only help we have," Stefan sighed. "We need to make sure she doesn't _have _any problems."

"So what should we do?" Elena asked, running a hand through her hair.

"I'll try to talk to him," Stefan said, "see what he has to say for himself."

"Okay," Elena sighed, moving forward. "I was thinking about taking Evie out to buy some new clothes with some of the money Alaric left us...I mean, you have to be right about her feeling lonely. She may put on a tough face, but I know what it's like to suddenly be alone. If we were friends in her time, I'm more than happy to learn to be her friend now. Besides, she's helping us, we may as well make her feel comfortable."

"That's a good idea," Stefan smiled at Elena. "And I'll talk to him while you're gone...or I'll try."

"Good," Elena grinned back, turning around toward the stack of papers they were sorting through again. "Is this a legend, or a bedtime story?"

"I think one is usually considered the other," Stefan sighed, rubbing the back of his neck before bending down to continue his reading.

Over toward the fireplace where the stack of papers had just been thrown on the couch – _again – _Evie was glaring at Damon.

"You know, you're not charming when you being a dick," she told him with a growl, picking up the papers he'd dropped and shoving them back into his hands while he chuckled.

"Now, we both know that's just not true," he said with a dramatic frown. "After all, you just keep coming back. Don't worry, they all do."

"Mm," she mumbled to him, sounding not at all convinced while she looked over another paper – quickly shoving it into his arms with the others. "You could _help_ you know."

"I am helping, I'm a bookshelf."

"I mean actually help," she gave in with a roll of her eyes. "I want to get this done with so that I can make sure your world is safe before I go back to mine and plan weddings and legally get drunk and – "

"Legally? You wouldn't consider getting illegally drunk?" He asked with as smirk. She stopped what she was doing to send him almost an identical one.

"Of course I could, but I can't very well tell you that. Aren't you my babysitter, or something?" she snorted, looking at him derisively before turning around again.

"I would never argue against a nice glass of whiskey," he pointed out. "Unless I had to share."

"Ah," she made a motion behind her turned back while she pointed out the flaw. "Therein lies the problem."

He liked this simple banter with her, it reminded him back when he would have normal conversations with the real doppelgangers – Katherine's smirk was almost incriminatingly intoxicating to see again and Elena's giggle and patterns of frustration had been adopted by her descendant, which made it fun to annoy her. He wanted to keep talking to her just so he could relive the memories.

But he still didn't like the girl. No, he didn't actually _like _Evelina – how could he? How could he like someone after what they had said to each other the night before? But it was nice to see what he had always burned to see from the two doppelgangers since they started hating him. It was nice to have someone who didn't know everything he had done. Besides, there was a small – a _very_ small – part of him really enjoyed bickering, particularly with someone who felt bad and would apologize just so she could start it up all over again. And that she apologized at all meant that she didn't mean what she was saying and she didn't hate him...which made her the only one in the group that didn't.

It was nice finally having _someone _on his side, whether he liked the brat or not.

"What about your man?" Damon found himself asking to change the conversation. "You said you'd get married to him on your birthday."

"Yeah, August 12th," she frowned. "Apparently we were on different months – isn't it October here?"

"Right you are," he nodded, she let out a loud groan.

"I'm _never _going to turn eighteen! Okay, how about we pretend I'm eighteen anyway – I mean, August _did _just pass."

"Yes, August 12th of however many years before you were born."

"Whatever," she sneered with a wave. "You're still not going to make me go to school or anything, are you? I already paid my dues and graduated top of my class – I don't need to go back."

"You didn't graduate top of your class," he snorted.

"Alright, no," she admitted. "I actually scraped through thanks to never going to school – however, I was busy making a life for myself and saving people from the effects of the war, so I was a bit preoccupied. Doesn't matter, I still graduated. I'm not going back."

"Well, if it ends up that you're a hassle when I'm babysitting you, I'll make you." Damon said seriously. "Meaning you have to play nice."

"I don't play nice."

"Perfect," Damon smirked. "Then we'll get along just peachy."

She rolled her eyes again, stopping what she was doing while she picked a picture up from the ground in front of her. Her entire body was stiff while she looked down at it, Damon couldn't help but look over her shoulder when he caught the change.

"That's Klaus," he muttered bitterly, looking at the picture of the hybrid. "Or Klaus in his _real_ body."

"Yeah," she cleared her throat with a wince before placing it on the couch with some of the other papers there. "He gets it back."

"Great, _nothing _we did worked." Damon kicked at a stake that was on the ground, watching while it skidded into the fireplace that Katherine was standing in front of. The doppelganger took a moment to turn and glare at him.

"So," Katherine said simply, looking through a file. "I guess both of us doppelgangers are born on June 22nd. Tatia probably was too."

"Another point to prove I'm not a doppelganger: I'm an August birthday." Evie said with a smile, pointing to herself proudly. Katherine, however, raised an eyebrow, looking between she and Damon mischievously before giving them a grin.

"It's too bad you're not a doppelganger," Katherine sighed forcefully. "Damon just loves us Petrovas. So you and Damon could be together if you were – then again, if you were a doppelganger like Elena and I, you'd be smart enough to know not to be with him. Just like we were."

"Ouch, Katherine," Evie frowned while Damon sneered at her. "I'm trying to create truces around here, cut me some slack. Besides, I'm engaged."

"Where's the ring?"

"I didn't wear it around family, they didn't quite approve." Evie narrowed her eyes at her ancestor. "Life's hard during a war – you should know."

"I do," she said simply, before she moved to play with a trinket she found on the mantle of Alaric's fireplace. "But do you know what I _don't _know? I still don't know what I'm getting out of any of this."

"We'll talk about our terms later," Evie said clearly before turning around again.

Evie busied herself by looking at the papers she'd left on the couch while Damon and Katherine took the time to glare behind her back. He didn't understand why she was trying to make a truce with everyone - Damon and Katherine...no, Damon and _anyone _and separately Katherine and _anyone _did not play well together. Needless to say it was a lot of glaring and pretending to clean before Caroline broke the silence.

"Evie, you okay?"

Damon's eyes found Evie carefully, she had been staring down at her hand that was still holding down a stack of papers, looking at her bare ring finger – apparently she was starting to feel a little home sick thanks to Katherine's reminder of her fiancé.

"Yeah," she shook her head, dropping her research back. "Yeah, I'm good."

"Here, Elena and Stefan found you some more legends, I found these pictures of the cave – just to get you by until we can get someone to go in with you, you know, because it's vampire repellant. And-"

"Uh," Evie's eyebrows furrowed while she looked at the picture in her hand. "That is not the cave."

"Yes it is," Elena's brows furrowed in the same way. Over Evie's shoulder she saw the exact pictures she had shown Rebekah to prove that Klaus had killed their mother. These were the pictures of the cave...so why didn't she know that?

"No, it's missing..." Evie trailed off with a long pause, her eyes searching hectically over the pictures as she searched for something that Elena could tell was not there. All too suddenly, Evie slapped the pictures down and looked to the group of them. "Alright, pack it up, I need to look these over."

* * *

By the time the group arrived and settled back at the Salvatore boarding house, all the pictures had been circled around where Evie sat in the middle of the living room on the expensive Persian rug. Around her the pictures clumped and overlapped to create an almost identical two hundred and sixty degree account of the wall pattern in the cave. Evie did not seem happy with what she saw. Elena, Caroline, and Stefan sat on the couch and watched her wearily while Damon stood near the fire, whiskey in his hand. Beside him stood Katherine, who was not so patient.

"What are you looking at?" she snapped, looking at the younger girl with a scowl that could have been etched on her face considering how perfectly it fit there.

"_Nothing_," Evie sighed in frustration, finally breaking her gaze on the photos to sit back in a more comfortable position amidst her circle of photos in her seat. "Apparently I'm looking at _nothing_. God, you guys are basically in the stone age!"

"What are you talking about?" Elena asked, looking down at all the old cave drawings and stories, the carvings of the Original's names..._that _had been the stone age. Why was Evie so frustrated by what she saw?

"These markings," she pointed to the stories of how the Originals became what they were with an accusing finger, "were not the only markings in my time. My sister, Evaine, she went to school to be a Historian. She was trying to decipher all of these other markings – markings that aren't even _here_! You don't even have the Hand of Glory, the Lineage of Souls, _or_ the Tale of the Tamed. The legends we've found, the ones I grew up with, half of them have been solved by my time..." she buried her head in her hands, weaving her fingers through her hair and pulling irritably. "It means I'm going in blind. I'm working off memory – which is really unreliable, by the goddamn way."

"It's alright," Elena moved forward when no one else did and took to rubbing her back supportively. It did not seem that Evie was comforted. "We have time to figure this out-"

"No, we don't!" Evie hissed at her, turning angry thunder clouded eyes on her. "_You _have time; you're immortal. You make it to my time – if it still exists," she sent a blatantly cold glare over to Damon again. "Now I'm stuck here trying to work out centuries – and I really mean _millennia _– old mysteries that I barely paid attention to as a kid when they were my bedtime stories. Really efficient, Evelina. Ugh, why couldn't Bonnie have summoned Elonnie or Evaine? Elodie and I are hopeless at this shit."

"We're going to work it out," Stefan assured, swiftly motioning to Elena to keep comforting her. The rubbing of Evie's back was distracting, though, as through her back she could feel the frustrated and quick pace of the girl's pulse. "We don't have as much time as you need, but we can work out what we have to work out to make everything all right again."

"Alright," Elena finally croaked out once Evie had been able to calm herself down. "Let's start off easy: what are the legends that you've already figured out?"

"Obviously the Doppelganger curses, Sun and Moon curse, the Curse of the Deities, the Legend of the Old Ones, and the Legend of the Incubus. Most of them end up being about common sense or the beginning of the Originals anyway."

"Good," Elena smiled. "See? That's tons of progress compared to where _we _were. Now, what about the cave? What do you see there?"

Evie took a deep breath, steeling herself for more frustration as she looked toward the pictures again. There was a long time of her debating what she was looking at before she tossed her hands up cantankerously and huffed. "Just more legends! The stupid everyone-knows-these kind of legends about the people talking about werewolf curses, cures and stuff-"

"Cures for werewolves?" Caroline asked excitedly, her eyes shifting over toward the door as if Tyler Lockwood would walk right through it at that moment.

"Not cures, just...suppressants," Evie corrected with a frown. She must have known where Caroline's mind had gone. "You also have the Originals names carved in there – but you've met them all, so that's nothing exciting."

"Exciting wouldn't be the word I'd use," Damon agreed.

"What about the things _missing _in the cave?" Elena prompted again. "Do you remember those?"

"No!" Evie whined, standing up and tearing away from Elena. She walked to the edge of the room, raking her hand through her curls painfully before sighing and stomping back towards the photos again. She scrutinized them with a clenched jaw. "There are so many extra things from my time that aren't here but they're all blurring together – I'm sorry," she shook her head.

"It's alright," Elena said quietly. "We'll make time for it."

"This place used to creep me out," Evie said softly with a frown toward the photos. "I only went in with my sisters when they would dare me as a kid, it always gave me these shivers. I'm not the psychic witch in the family but I could just..I could _feel _the danger that must have been in there. Later on some of the vampires became my friends and since they couldn't go in, I wouldn't either. It was nice to have a reason not to go in besides being a chicken."

"Alright," Stefan said again, pulling his hand away from his mouth and nodding to her pensively. "But you mentioned things in particular, what were they?"

"Well, there's the Tale of the Tamed – a legend about a man who was dying and who ate all the hearts of the people around him until his own heart grew back...yeah, that was a weird one. Graphic. But that one was just one of the stories to teach us morals as kids, kind of like the Lineage of Souls – it was pretty much a giant family tree that you guys started so you could keep track of your descendants. I was on there..." She drew rough and messy red sketches of the legends as she described them for the group. Evie was definitely no artist, but it was nice to have an idea what images she was talking about and where they were approximately placed and how much space they took up.

"What was the other one?"

"The Hand of Glory?" Evie let out a sneer. "Ugh, the most stupid, frustrating thing ever. Someone, apparently between our times, decided it would be cool to put a coded message up of their handprint in blood on the wall, here," she grabbed one of the pens that laid in front of her and drew it on one of the pictures – presumably where it would be years from now. Over top of it she put three letters.

"'Cur'?" Damon read. "As in a mutt or an asshole?"

"Doubtful," Evie snorted. "No, Evaine was obsessed with this. She thought that it had some profound meaning – we tried translating it into a whole bunch of languages but it kept just coming back with things like "ass", "take", "headache" and I think it was Latin that translates to "why". After she didn't get any visions and we couldn't make sense of it, we pretty much figured it was just a symbol for why there had to be bloodshed. Elonnie and Evaine named it the Hand of Glory."

"Cool story," Damon called after a drink from his glass. "Wish I got bedtime stories like that."

"No you don't," Evie made a face that made Damon's eyes flicker over to Elena's...they looked nearly identical while they tried to hide identical looks of disappointment. "It was so much to take in that I can barely remember them all."

"Well, here," Caroline smiled. "Today was a bad day, but I know something that will cheer you up."

Evie sent a worried look toward Elena before her eyes fell back on Caroline very warily. "You're not going to take me shopping, are you?"

Caroline laughed loudly. "How'd you guess? Oh, I guess we're friends later, but you can't say it's a bad idea. Elena and I were thinking we should take you – it'll be a nice distraction from everything that's got to be swimming around in your head, it'll get you away from all the stress for a bit, and you can have your own clothes so that you don't have to keep wearing Elena's. What did you think?"

Evie groaned through a rough laugh. "Well, clearly years haven't touched you..."

"Is that a yes?" Caroline smiled knowingly.

"Do I actually get a choice?" Evie asked with a look between she, Elena and Katherine.

"Not really," Elena laughed, knowing that Caroline now had her mind set on shopping and distraction and since she was determined for it, she would get it. Caroline would probably compel she and Evie to shut up and have a good time if she were able to.

"Then why not?" Evie smiled tightly. Caroline smiled back, getting a good grasp on her arm so that she could waltz Evie out. Elena followed quickly, throwing a look over to Stefan as she exited the room with them. She bit her lip as she exited, worrying about why Katherine had not made a move to join them - as silly as she knew it was, it was hard not to wonder what damage someone who looked like her - someone who looked like her with the insensitivity of Katherine - could do to the two brothers when the three were alone.

She'd done it once and she could do it again.

But Elena tried to think past it, she couldn't be with Stefan all the time and now that he was more or less himself, he would need to earn his trust back anyway - what better way than with the one who made him with the flaws he had?

"You and I are going to have a chat," Stefan said to Damon with a finality that made Damon sigh.

"Fantastic," the older Salvatore brother turned to Katherine with a sneer. "This is brother-bonding time. Go do something productive...preferably something that doesn't involve killing the locals."

Katherine rolled her eyes, but seemed to realize that manipulation wouldn't work during whatever kind of conversation these brothers were allowed to have. Both of them looked after her, a mix between painful memories and painful curiosity dancing across the forefront of their minds - why was Katherine behaving? And why, more importantly, was she sticking around?

But now was not the time to worry about Katherine, Stefan thought strongly. Now was the time to make sure that his brother didn't ruin anyone's life by doing something reckless and stupid. Again.

* * *

Now separated into groups, or in Katherine's case just separated _from_ the groups, the people hoped for a little peace of mind. While they let Damon and Stefan duke it out in a way that kept Elena constantly biting her lips while they drove toward the Mystic Grill, Caroline and Evie were fully into the idea of forgetting about their problems. They even distracted themselves by discussing all the kinds of things Evie could expect to see in stores or at the diner here in the twenty-first century.

"So, this is it," Caroline said as they drove into the parking lot at the Grill. "I just want to grab us food. You know, just in case."

"Thirsty?" Evie asked, seeming very calm about it. It made Elena wince that she had to know the real reason for the drop-off.

Elena tried to look apologetic. "Does it bother you?"

"No, I've lived my whole life with vampires and hybrids and werewolves, I wasn't sheltered. You really think after time travel and war that a simple pit stop to reduce cravings bothers me?" Evie let out a snort. "I've been bitten more times than I've had birthdays."

Elena frowned, remembering the feel of fangs piercing her skin. She'd always been aware how lucky she was that she wasn't attacked more by vampires considering how often she was captured or compelled or dating them. She felt immediately sorry for the younger girl in front of her. "Really?"

"Oh yeah." Evie didn't seem upset about it, like she was talking about scraping her knee, but it still made Elena and Caroline share a look of worry. That was a new level of calm that they were not used to seeing having known about vampires or not.

Walking into the Grill, they had their orders taken. Caroline went into vivid detail about people who worked in the bar - such as Jeremy and Matt. Evie was very patient and listened to the story about how Matt was still in the hospital after the car crash that had turned Elena and offered a little tidbit she said she wasn't supposed to by saying that Matt would be fine and would stay fine through a lot of their battles for a long time...it was comforting for them to hear. Evie even tried asking about Jeremy, wondering when she would meet him - but Elena avoided the subject. She didn't like that her brother had given her distance since her transition into a vampire and didn't want to talk about it - Evie was respectful of it.

The girls also noticed how hard it was for Evie to act normal while she examined the differences between this time and her own. She kept asking about everything around her from the chairs, to the arcade games, to the television, even to the pool table and some options on the menu.

"Whoa, beef!" Evie had laughed. "Yeah, enjoy that now - that won't be around for much longer."

Elena didn't even want to know why.

It was after the girls had been sitting, drinking their sodas and waiting for their orders that Elena had decided to try breaching the subject of Damon. It was a hard conversation to start. As many entrances as she could see - because someone at the table was constantly complaining about him - it just seemed wrong to accuse Evie of that. She was helping them and it would be insulting the loyalty to the fiancé she kept talking about if Elena were to suggest anything.

Just as she was coming to the decision not to bring up Evie's interactions with Damon at all, the girls were interrupted by a shadow falling over their table. Evie, not having the senses to freeze and bristle as the two vampires did, seemed to think that it was the waiter because she looked behind her with a grin, only to see it fall when she realized it was not a waiter at all.

"Honoria?" The voice made both the vampires bristle as they glared at the dark featured Original standing over the witch's shoulder. Evie's eyebrows furrowed while Elena's temper flared.

"What are you doing here, Elijah?" Elena felt little need to be polite. "We thought you'd left."

"We were going to," he said slowly, not taking his eyes off of Evie - who, in turn, did not take her eyes off of him either. "But we decided it was something that could wait. I'm sorry, have we met?"

"Uh..." Evie clearly didn't know how to answer the question for a moment before she threw him a tight smile and gave him her hand to shake. "Not yet. I'm Evelina, but my friends call me Evie."

"Evelina-"

"Yuck. No, Evie," she corrected.

"But we are not friends," he chuckled. Just as Evie looked like she was about to give something else away to the Original, Elena gave the girl's arm a squeeze and shot a look to Caroline to come up with some sort of reason to leave.

"No need to be awkward in public," Caroline smiled and talked loudly to interrupt the two's eye contact. "We were actually just getting our stuff to go, Elijah, so if you could..."

Caroline took the time to keep Evie's eyes away from the Original - who knew if he would try compulsion? Elena had no proof that Evie had vervain to prevent it. Caroline moved him to the side as she stood, headed toward the bartender and looking like she may have compelled him to get their food for them now while she paid. Elena took that as her clue to get Evie out of there. But even as Elena said a tight goodbye and Evie gave a little wave, Elijah's eyes followed her intensely all the way out of the bar.

Once they were outside in the cool October air that seemed to snap all three of them out of the confusion and into escape-mode, Elena raised her eyebrows at Evie.

"How do you know Elijah?"

"Ugh," Evie made a face, looking at the two girls regretfully. "Spoiler alert: he's kind of my godfather."

"You're godfather?"

"No way!" Caroline gasped.

"Oh yeah," she sighed, letting her head fall back against the back car seat, her eyes looking out the far window. "Elena, you're kind of my godmother."

"Godmother?" she repeated, turning in her seat so that she could talk to Evie. It didn't matter though, as Evie was lost in her own thoughts, her hands wringing themselves and playing with her bare, left ring finger.

"Still, that doesn't explain the scene he made," Caroline said slowly, looking out the rear view mirror nervously. "Elijah doesn't know you yet."

"Yeah," Elena nodded, her eyes on Evie. "Who's Honoria?"

Evie looked out the window, a genuine look of bewilderment on her face as she sighed. "I have no idea."

* * *

**I'm so glad that I'm seeing more and more interest in this story! Please let me know what you're thinking like these ****fantastic**** reviewers:**

_SomebodyWhoCares_**: I couldn't have them be civil for too long, they still don't trust each other, but now that they've opened the floodgates, I promise romance will happen. Besides, as you saw in the prologue, Damon and Evie - or Davie - ends up happening! Thanks for reviewing :)**

_Angel of the Night Watchers_**: Sorry I didn't send these to you, I wanted you to be able to concentrate on those Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix chapters I sent you because I'm so excited to start releasing, but I still need to know if you think I'm moving too slowly in the first few chapters. For my migraines, I tend to use Aleve unless it's for those migraines that decide to disrupt my daily life; I have doctor prescribed meds for those. That's so cool that you and your husband are goign to the gym together, I couldn't even go with my friends in school because I was so embarrassed by how non-fit I am. And I'm not heavy or anything, I'm just NOT fit. It's humiliating. Trust me. **

_Guest_**: Thank you, I'm glad you liked it!**

_SilverMoonlit_**: Thank you, I'm glad you're liking it. I promise that you'll end up finding out what happened to Damon and about everything that happened with Klaus as well - but sadly, it won't be this chapter. But you won't have to wait too long :)**

_nickiR0x_**: I'm glad you like this AU, it took a lot of planning so I hope that ends up coming through when the story starts to unravel to its seams. I can tell you that at the end of the last chapter, Evie wasn't really hinting to anything in particular except that what she knows of his life isn't quite 'a bedtime story' or, more preferably 'a happy one'. Hope you liked this update and thank you for reviewing!**

* * *

**Well, what did you think? It seems she really does get along with some of the bad guys, doesn't she? But how does this all have to do with her coming back, with Damon not being in the future, with the war, with what will happen to Klaus? I'd love to hear your ideas!**

**Please REVIEW!**

**-Egypt**


	8. Exchange

**Oh, I'm loving all the response I'm getting for this story! I'm so glad you guys are liking it. Hopefully you continue to like all the twists and turns I'm going to put all these characters through...like now...**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

Chapter Seven – Exchange

* * *

"You have a very – uh – you like a lot of...you have-"

"A forward fashion sense?" Evie laughed, looking at Caroline while she stumbled over her approach. Apparently she didn't like her fashion sense – which made sense considering there were hundreds of years between their styles. Caroline was the most fashion forward person she knew in the future, so she wasn't surprised she'd be so outspoken now that they were shopping in the little stores downtown Mystic Falls. "Why, what would this be called now?"

"Rebel, punk, Not-My-Style," Caroline grinned, still she looked through the racks, trying to find something for her new friend to try on. "You're a bit all over the board – you like formal looking things but you like leather boots, you like skinny jeans but you don't like any other material, you like short sleeves but you don't like layering...it is October, you know."

"True," she nodded. "But that's why I found the discount rack for leather jackets. And in my time, jeans are pretty much nonexistent – they're a complete luxury. It's so weird to see how much your generation wastes on nonessential materials. I mean, why don't you use the natural ones more? Wool, silk, cotton – why polyester and spandex and...is this _knit_?"

"Don't complain so much," Caroline frowned at her, holding up a green jewel-toned top before placing it over her shoulder. "So what are we going to do when we get back?"

"Fashion show?" Elena offered, giving her a taunting glare while Evie snorted.

"Oh, I'm sure Stefan and Damon would _love _that," she said sarcastically. The vampire girls threw each other a subtle glance when Evelina had mentioned the Salvatore brother they were trying to pry about _again. _"I think I'd rather get caught in the shower."

"Really?" Caroline looked almost sad. Apparently she had liked the idea of a fashion show.

"Really," Evie nodded. She turned to Elena. "You know I'll pay you back in my time when I realize this even happened, right?"

"I know," Elena gave her a smile. Both girls were unnerved when Evie returned it and saw that the smiles were mirror images. "You're helping us sort everything out. This is the best I can repay you for right now until we find something better."

"Yeah, when we get home are you going to keep looking through those books?" Caroline asked simply, keeping her eyes on the racks so she couldn't show that she was subtly trying to pry again. "Stefan texted and said he would put Damon to work on organizing the papers into piles to make it easier."

"I'll probably look through the legends and the spell books for inspiration," Evie said simply, going toward the dress section and looking at more formal things. "You guys still have all those formal balls, right? Won't deny – I love dressing up and feeling like a lady. Doesn't happen often," she sang to them jokingly. "I'm a better witch than a lady, I guess. To be honest, I don't really know what to do about your problems – I mean, I kind of know what's going to happen in your future but I have a lot of trouble knowing exactly _when. _I liked history, but I was never really a fan of _learning..._"

"As long as we can neutralize Klaus and maybe send away the Originals," Elena informed. "Also finding some kind of antidote for werewolf bites would be helpful if we find the time and are able to send Klaus away – he's the only one who can heal them."

"As far as I know, Klaus being the only cure doesn't change," Evie mumbled distractedly, looking through a shelf with rich navy dresses. "I think we need to get Tyler in control of his own body before we try doing anything to Klaus. For that I'll need Bonnie, bait, blood, and his body."

"Lot of B's there," Caroline hummed to herself, biting at her lip when she thought about her kind of boyfriend who she had kissed and had been the enemy who kind of liked her. What a complicated scenario. "Evie...do you really think we can get Tyler back?"

"Oh, Care," Evie gave her a very sympathetic look. Both she and Elena had heard the tone of her voice, which was close to tears. "You forget that Klaus has his body back in my time. We'll get Tyler back in his body, we'll get Klaus back into _his _body, and then we'll work out how to debilitate him. Think of it this way: he can't make anymore hybrids. He'll try to find a way around that – which he won't find here."

"So that's how we'll make him go away?" Caroline asked. "What if he won't leave?"

"Then maybe I'll try a binding spell; stop him from doing harm, or something..."

"You think that could work?" Elena asked doubtfully, handing over the small pile of clothes she had picked out for her descendant. Evie gave a shrug but tried to look positive.

"I'll look it up," Evie gave another smile that was so close to Elena's that it almost made Caroline stutter again. When Evie saw that Caroline was feeling more calm, she held up the pink shirt from her pile of clothing. "And to prove how confident I am in myself, I'll even try this piece of florescent crap on...oh, gross, it's made of nylon! What is _wrong _with you people?"

"What's wrong with nylon?"

"Do you know what nylon does when it's left in a garbage dump?" she threw the shirt back in Caroline's hands before going and pulling out a nice cotton and wool dark gray sweater – the same colour as most of the clothes she'd picked out.

"You know, you're making us sound like eco-terrorists," Elena laughed a bit, but stopped when she watched Evie nod to them both.

"Well, you kind of are. If you knew the type of damage _your _generation alone leaves on the earth, you'd go caveman to fix it. I mean, in my time the only animals you see are birds, rodents, cats and dogs – the rest pretty much die out after you finish taking over their ecosystems in the early 2100s."

"Alright," Caroline said sternly, turning her around and shoving her toward the dressing rooms. "No more being a Debbie-downer. Let's get you trying these on-"

"I don't promise I'll get this," Evie frowned, showing off the pink top again. "I told you I hate pink."

"It'll look great on – especially under that dark leather jacket...please?" Caroline gave the biggest puppy dog eyes that she could manage and continued doing it even when Evie's eyes rolled.

"Fine," she sighed, going toward the dressing room. "Only because you look pathetic when you pout."

"Well," Elena sighed once the door to the dressing room had closed. "She talks about Damon a lot."

"I wouldn't say 'a lot'," Caroline mused. "When I have crushes I think I talk about them more."

"You talk more in general," Elena laughed at her. Caroline gave another pout toward her.

"That was uncalled for."

"I know," Elena looked back at the dressing room nervously. "I just hope Stefan gets the point across to Damon."

* * *

"Oh, this is priceless," Damon guffawed, moving quickly toward the table that held his whiskey while he poured himself a nice, large glass. He let the liquor pour over his fingers while he glared at his brother, unable to stop himself from glaring. He took a large drink from the sticky glass before he continued with his low, bitter laughter. "So you think I'm going to seduce little Evelina, do you?"

"I worry you'll try," Stefan quirked his head for emphasis. "Damon, you have to admit your track record with the doppelgangers isn't the greatest."

"Funny," Damon smirked at him. "I thought it was the exact same as yours."

Stefan frowned, not missing the insinuation he knew his brother was making. "Damon, Elena worries that you'll connect with Evie while she's at her weakest. You can't take advantage of her, she's alone and probably scared-"

"She seems just fine to me," Damon argued. "She seems pretty confident with what she's doing – she's going around like she owns the place. Besides; she and I are not friends, we are not _interested_, and we are not at risk of anything happening. She's _engaged_, brother, and I have my eye on someone else."

"I'm sure you do," Stefan muttered trying to hold back a growl, instead he took to rubbing his forehead exhaustingly while he leaned against the couch. "With everything that's going on, I don't want you losing your head. Elena's still mad at you-"

"Oh? I hadn't heard," he raised a sarcastic brow, while he tried not to think about the girl he was in love with screaming at him during her first night as a vampire.

"Evie needs to get back home. We need to get her to help here until we have things under control again and then help her back so she can get back to her family, her friends, her fiancé..."

"Why would we do that?" Damon made a face accompanied with a scoff. "Just get her to help us and let her figure it out on her own – we don't know if we can trust her yet, anyway."

"Don't we?" Stefan asked sceptically with raised eyebrows.

"No," Damon said firmly. "We can't. She hasn't actually helped anyone here besides spilling the beans on Klaus and telling us some legends that have no relevance to us. She's full of worthless information, I don't think having her around will be any help."

"Oh," Stefan hummed, walking around the couch to stand in front of his brother and crossing his arms. "Is this about the conversation you two had the other night? The one where she realized who you were?"

"Oh little brother, eavesdropping is impolite," Damon rolled his head backward and glared at the ceiling. "It's not like she had anything interesting to say."

"That's not how I heard it," Stefan argued softly, not able to make himself sound strong when he remembered what had been said. "She sounded like she was almost _worried _about you."

"Did it sound like that?" Damon asked with false interest. "I just thought it was me working the charm I have over doppelgangers. Elena can vouch for her, I'm sure."

"Damon, you're seriously not worried? She sounded like she knew what was going to happen – why didn't you ask her what it was?"

"Why would I?" Damon took the time to finish off his glass of whiskey before turning for another. "It's not like the brat would tell me anyway, she's still on the keep-things-the-same bandwagon and even if she did tell me, I'd have no reason to believe it was true."

"If you really want to figure things out, there's only one way." Stefan reminded him. His brother pretended to think about it.

"Wait for it to happen?"

"I was thinking something that lets you know a little sooner," Stefan hedged quietly.

"Look through her head?" Damon offered again. Stefan frowned at him.

"I was thinking of asking her."

Damon made a face at him.

"You already said that I wasn't allowed to get too close to her," he argued, wagging a finger at him. "And I already decided that she's not worth the time – she's engaged and seems pretty boring anyway. Girls like her aren't fun until their bachelorette party."

"Damon," Stefan sighed. "Just, behave, alright? I already have to worry about Katherine, it'd be nice if you'd just work with us so that we don't have to worry about you, too."

"Did you just put me on the same level as _Katherine_?" Damon sneered. "I'm insulted."

"No, you're predictable," Stefan argued him. "Now start sorting through those papers – I'll be down to help right after I talk to Katherine, we'll need something to show to Evie when she gets back."

Stefan left, walking up the stairs. He could basically hear Damon working out a plan to corner Evie while she was sleeping, look through her brain and pick apart all of her memories and secrets. Still, he walked upstairs – he'd just have to pay attention tonight to make sure Damon stayed away from her room.

Stefan stopped in the middle of the hall, getting a quick text from Elena saying that they were finished for the day and that they would be home soon. She also gave a quick side note to say they couldn't get a read on Evelina's feelings toward Damon. She seemed annoyed, but she still didn't seem to hate him like 'everyone should', Elena had said. He responded with a brief 'see you soon' before he went into Katherine's room. She sat on her bed, posing because she knew that he was on his way, though her expression was infinitely taunting.

"Elena needs to check up on you that often, does she, Stefan? It's almost like she doesn't trust me with you..."

"I wonder why," Stefan sneered at her. "I just came to tell you that you need to watch what you say around Evie. We don't need your head games with the girl who might be the key to helping all of us."

"Head games? Me?" Katherine pretended to be shocked. "I have no reason to hurt little Evelina and I have no reason to help _work _for her either. I'm here for _you_, Stefan. I always am."

"Somehow, I don't believe that this time." he narrowed his eyes. Katherine propped her head up on her hand, looking at him with a grin.

"You need to trust me more," Katherine said simply. "I don't lie to you, Stefan."

"Sure," he was doubtful. "Why _have _you stuck around this long? Really?"

"Really?" She dropped the sweet voice and spread across her bed on her belly, looking up at him mischievously. "I'm interested. A little girl who says she's my descendant shows up out of nowhere, knows how to call me telepathically, says she knows the outcome of my future, and says she's going to help try to eradicate the problems I currently have? Who _wouldn't_ stick around for a bit?"

"Then why were you trying to push she and Damon closer today?"

"Push them together?" she laughed out loud, it was boisterous and sounded anything but genuine. "If I was doing anything I was warning her to stay away. Besides, Damon's still too caught up in Elena to pay Evelina any mind. Well, except..."

"Except what?"

Katherine shrugged with false innocence. "If I were in Damon's shoes, I'd think it's really nice that I found someone who looks just like me...I mean _Elena_," she added mockingly. "But who doesn't know everything that he's done. Damon was sweet when he was innocent and then sexy when he was bad – but he can never be one or the other and that's what kills the illusion. For a girl like Evie?" Katherine shrugged again. "She may as well have 'I love rebels' printed across her forehead."

"You can't know that," Stefan argued immediately.

"Can't I?" she laughed. "Oh, Stefan. For someone so bad, you're still so _good_. It's why Evie hasn't looked at you that way – she's just like I am. Evie likes the bad boys. You were a bad boy once...and between you and Damon, who was the last one who did something _bad?_"

Stefan frowned, he barely had time to ask the question before he heard the door to Evie's room opening and Damon sneaking in to check if there was anything he could find answers with in her room. Apparently he had given up on searching her mind at night and trying to look through her pockets instead. Stefan, still unsure what to do, turned his back on Katherine with a glare before he went to go stop him...even if it meant that he was proving Katherine right.

* * *

"That's a lot of shopping bags," Katherine noted when the three girls entered the boarding house, their arms laden with all of Evie's new merchandise. Elena rolled her eyes when she saw the girl standing on the stairs, Caroline made sure to avoid her eyes – ever since Katherine had killed her, the two hadn't been what one could consider the 'closest' of friends. "Get anything nice?"

"I think so," Evie sent a smirk up to her. "Even if Caroline doesn't agree."

Caroline made a sound as if she didn't actually agree with what was said, but in the end she just smiled and put her bags down. Her eyes tried to warn Elena to get Evie out of the room with her bags as well, Katherine usually didn't come to greet them when they were having some sort of conversation and she knew that the older doppelganger was going to try to do something or other.

"You should know that Jeremy's upstairs in the study with Stefan," Katherine told Elena noncommittally. "He's just trying to explain things to him before he panics. Nicer than you did, Elena."

"Jeremy was getting the rest of his things from Denver, this isn't something I could have told him over the phone-" she shook her head, cutting herself off from snapping more at her mirror image. "Just stay away from him, Katherine."

"My pleasure, your brother's a bore. You, however," her eyes turned to Evie, "have a story to tell me. What would you rather, walk outside or a locked room upstairs?"

Caroline and Elena turned toward Evie with frowns, but Evie was determinedly not looking at either of them. She knew that they did not trust Katherine to be alone with her, but Evie had been through a lot with Katherine in the time she'd spent with her centuries down the road – Katherine was just a hard shell with a mushy inside, the others just hadn't had a chance to know what the shell cushioned. Evie tried to send the two younger vampires a reassuring look and smile, but they still didn't move.

"Walk outside," she nodded to Katherine, putting her bags down on the couch where Caroline had stopped to put her own. "You're right, I owe you some explanations. And knowing you, some motivation, too."

"No," Elena said immediately. "No, I don't think you should go alone with her, Evie, she'll-"

"Don't worry," Evie sent her a smile, laying a hand on her arm. Elena gritted her teeth through the pain – as much as she liked Evie, she couldn't help feeling the pulse underneath her hand that made her teeth itch to shift places. "She can't do anything to me that I don't want to. I'd dare her to try."

Evie sent a meaningful look toward Katherine, whose eyes rolled. "I'd tell me my reason to stay before you take chances like dares, Evelina."

"Please be careful," Caroline whispered to her as she past her, still not feeling convinced when Evie sent her a very serious nod. "I don't trust her."

"How sweet," Katherine descended the stairs, looking every bit of the socialite she once had been. Neither of them had ever stopped to notice how poised Katherine could be...then again, she was usually trying to kill them, so maybe they hadn't really had the time. The doppelganger passing by the other two girls on her way out the door, beckoning toward Evie to follow. "Don't wait up, children."

"Sorry," Evie frowned as Katherine walked out the door without waiting. "I promise I'm going to make this all work – Katherine just takes a little bit more time to smooth the edges with..."

"A little?" Elena asked doubtfully. Evie sent her as much of an encouraging smile as she could.

"Go talk to Jeremy, I'm really excited to meet him. I never get to."

"You mean, he doesn't end up a vampire?" Elena was both excited and hurt by the fact, she wanted Jeremy not to have to die but she didn't want him to have to live a lifeless life for eternity. Evie shook her head at Elena, giving her the no that she felt so torn over, before she walked out the door as well, running to catch up with Katherine who had not slowed at all on her way down the Salvatores' driveway.

"You know," Evie began when she had caught up with her. "You could be nicer to them – it'd make this all go much smoother."

"They locked me in a cave and starved me," she didn't even hiss it. It was as if she was telling a fact to someone and she wasn't talking about herself. "I don't owe them anything."

"Except your life, which they've saved a number of times – and will continue to do so," Evie hinted with pursed lips. "Listen, I've known you for a long time. You wouldn't know, but you and I are actually close...or as close as you'll let someone be to you-"

"Good to know I don't change," Katherine smirked.

"The two of us have a lot in common – as much as Elena and I have in common, except you understand the darker and more complicated things that she never will," Evie stopped to emphasize her point, making Katherine stop as well. "I know your theory on being alone. I know your feelings on humanity, but every creature – good or bad – knows that there's power in numbers."

"I'm enough power on my own," Katherine said simply. "Are you enough power to keep me here? I'll admit you were interesting the first day, but I'm starting to think that you tricked me here."

"I know you want something in exchange for your help. You always do," Evie rolled her eyes when Katherine smirked again. "So I'm offering you information, I'm kind of short on any other resources this far back in the past."

"Information?" Katherine couldn't keep the interest out of her voice, so she started walking again as if it wasn't something she needed to stick around for. Evie stayed right at her side, keeping the same pace while Katherine pretended to mull the idea over.

"I know you like to play your hand close to the heart," Evie smirked knowingly. "And I like that. You taught me a lot of tricks like that which have kept me alive a lot longer than I probably should have survived. So I'm offering you some insiders information for your future, one fact for every favour you do. It'll be worth your while, I'll be saving you a lot of injury and a lot of loose ends."

"Well, you know what I say about loose ends..."

"You like them tied up, I know," Katherine looked at her with raised eyebrows. With each sentence she started to believe this little curly haired clone of hers even more. "You drove that point home when I was a teenager and you killed the teacher that wanted to fail me...thanks for that, by the way. I won't thank you at the time, but you saved me having to go back a year."

"Any time," Evie rolled her eyes at the pun while both girls held back a laugh. Had anyone been around to see them, they would have been shocked by how alike the two girls looked – their eyes dancing in a way that could only have belonged to twins of a like mind.

"Clever," Evie laughed briefly. "For coming when I called, I definitely owe you a moment to help with. So, here's your first in-depth look into my time: eventually you'll try to kill a teen named Carson to try and keep your vampire secret hush-hush...he'll be a witch. He'll neutralize the effect of your sunlight pendant before you drain him. Now you know and can stop it."

"Interesting," Katherine's eyebrows raised. "But how do I know it's true?"

"You won't until it happens," Evie shrugged her shoulders. "I'll try to let the next fact be closer to this time so that you don't have to worry about my sincerity as long."

"_Next_ fact? You're assuming I'm staying."

"You'll stay," Evie smiled in a way that was so like Katherine it made the doppelgangers eyebrows raise. "You'll stay because I know that you favour security over friendship – and I'm giving you both, pretty much for free."

"You're still assuming that I'll be able to put up with the Salvatore brothers," Katherine pointed out with a sneer. "Even though I keep trying to run away from them. Do I get a favour for that?"

"Not quite," Evie winced. "But I do actually have a _next _favour to give you."

"_Next _favour?" Katherine repeated darkly, she saw the look on the girls face, it was not a confident one.

"You have to keep it quiet, just you and me." Evie said seriously. Katherine frowned.

"Keep _what_ quiet? The next favour?"

"Yeah," Evie swallowed thickly, her heart pounding against her ribs. Katherine did not like the sudden nervousness. "And you're not going to like it."

"Won't I?"

"I doubt it," a new, higher voice interrupted the smooth flow of conversation, it was a voice that immediately froze Katherine's blood. She turned slightly, looking to the side at the two people who stood there. The two _Originals_ that stood there.

"Hello, Katerina," Elijah smiled, not genuine at all with the politeness. Rebekah, beside him had her arms mimicking her brothers: crossed over her chest. Both looked Katherine, then Evelina up and down with judgemental and suspicious eyes. Katherine sent a conspicuous glare to the witch who shrugged innocently and winced.

"Told you so."

* * *

**Oh-ho! So one chapter Elijah call her Honoria and the next he and Rebekah meet her in the middle of the woods? What do you think's going to happen? I'd love to hear your ideas! To my magnificent reviewers:**

_SomebodyWhoCares_**: I also picture Elijah as a great godfather. I actually adore his character, I wish he were someone in my life. I feel like he'd be a great role model and I love his values. Evie's fiancé will be coming into play sooner rather than later, don't worry! Thanks for reviewing :)**

_Beckah Salvatore-Winchester_**: I'm so glad you like the story and don't worry, I'll be continuing this one through the end. I have constant inspiration for it and thought it out for a long time before I released it, so it's all mapped out. Thank you so much for the compliments!**

_SilverMoonlit_**: I'm so glad you like the story :) the question on Evie's fiance will be answered soon and you're right: Honoria **_**was**_ **a Fell in 1864 before Stefan killed her and her husband, but Honoria is one of the oldest names in history...so it is the same Honoria? Dun-dun-dun! Thank you for the review, I hope you enjoyed the chapter.**

_Angel of the Night Watchers_**: Yeah, I don't even try to be fit anymore. Luckily I'm a little bit more lean because I used to dance and apparently my muscle mass remembers it, but otherwise I can't run around my own block, nevertheless be considered 'fit'. Again, thank you for doing the Green Eyed Monster chapters! I have some more for you when you're ready :)**

_Mujona_**: I'm so glad you like it! Thank you very much for the review :)**

_LexxSunday_**: I hope that was a fast update for you, thanks!**

_nickiR0x_**: I'm glad that I'm keeping you guessing. Who her fiance was has never been insinuating, but I'm glad that you're trying to get ahead of the race and guess. Luckily, before I even read your review I had already written an excuse why Katherine was still around and Bonnie annoys me too. I kind of wish I could just write her out, but alas, I have things planned for her. Aw well, I hope you liked this chapter, thank you so much for your thoughts!**

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**Well, anyone have a guess with what's about to happen? If you have time check out my new poll on my profile and more importantly, keep in mind that I'd love to hear your thoughts! So please ****REVIEW!**

**-Egypt**


	9. The Powers That Be

**Hello everyone! This is a fairly exciting chapter – it's not necessarily long or have a lot of action, but it will transition into that kind of chapter for next time :) Thank you to the fantastic **_Angel of the Night Watchers_**for her editing. Hope you enjoy!**

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Chapter Eight – The Powers That Be

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Elena was exhausted. She had stayed up later than she had thought she'd had to while she'd waited for Evie and Katherine to come back from their walk. It had been strange, watching them leave with so much attitude and seeing them return with as close to sombre expressions that she'd ever seen from either of them. When Katherine had stormed up the stairs – stomping the entire way up without so much as a second glance at the girl she'd come back with – Evie had just thrown Elena an innocent shrug and thanked her for waiting up.

Elena had taken her to bed, staying in her room and asking questions about her various objects on the desk in the corner. These things were new – not just new, but most had obviously not been invented in this century: expanding plastic boxes and metal Swiss-army knives with 72 settings, glass objects and jewelry, things that resembled credit cards and mini-CD's, and most curiously a glass slide with wireless ear pieces that was apparently the equivalent to a laptop. These things were the things in the multitude of pockets in Evelina's slick clothes from the night she had come back to their time to help them.

Not that anything has really happened since, Elena thought, immediately feeling guilty. She understood that it must be hard to get on top of things and get your bearings in a completely different time, but she was having a lot of trouble understanding why Evie was taking so much time with it. Evelina knew the dangers that were around them. She knew they had to somehow magically banish or possibly bind Klaus to leave them alone and they would have to get the other Originals out of here as well. On top of that, they needed to look into what would happen to her now that Elena had turned into a vampire before she'd gotten to bear the child that would later spawn Evelina's own family.

Why _wasn't _she rushing?

When Evelina came down stairs the next morning, it was actually closer to the afternoon. Elena had decided to take the day off of school so that she could try to bond with the girl just as Evie had taken time to bond with their most manipulative enemy – who was also asleep upstairs. Waiting until Evie had her hands around a large cup of black coffee with cinnamon, Elena cleared her throat to get the girl's attention.

"So, what's the plan for today?"

"Don't you have to educate yourself?" Evie asked darkly, twirling her finger in her mug and wincing when it was too hot. "I was hoping for more sleep."

"So you drank coffee?" Elena asked doubtfully. Evie looked down at her cup as if she didn't know the coffee had caffeine before placing in back down on the island between them. "I thought we might try to come up with some plans of attack today."

"Oh, I have a plan of attack," Evie barely sounded excited. It was like she was saying this for the hundredth time and yet Elena was sure she had never heard anything close to a plan. And even though Elena had the idea too, now she was curious: plan of attack for what? When would the do it? Who would be involved? Where would she be for it? Why had she not heard?

"You do?"

"I do," she said again, as if it were the simplest thing in the world. She rolled her head along her shoulders, trying to massage kinks out of her neck and wake herself up. It was something Elena did when she started to doze in class.

"Well what is it?"

"We find Tyler Lockwood and Klaus..." Evie made a face. "Or is it Klaus and Tyler Lockwood? I guess it really depends how you want to look at it to decide which order to put their names in. Either way, we need to find Klaus and his gracious _host_."

Elena had heard Evie spit words like that before, she couldn't help wondering if it was some sort of slang with the way she hissed them out. Maybe a discriminatory phrase, an insult, a title...either way it seemed that Evie hated having to say it.

"And then what?"

"And then we lure him out of the wolf."

Something told her it was not as simple as Evie let on.

"Good," Elena frowned. "And then?"

"And then the group of you have to make up with Bonnie so she and I can do some serious magical damage control," she smiled, taking her cup of coffee and cinnamon off of the table and blowing on it before raising it to take a testing sip. "So you'd better do that fast, because I know how to lure Klaus out."

"How?" Elena's eyes were sparkling in a way Evie always saw in the mirror, it made her smile more at her eagerness as she blew on her coffee again.

"Simple, Klaus is a selfish creature, all you have to do is play to his weaknesses." That did not seem that simple either.

"Well what are they?" Elena pushed, watching the dark smirk crawl over Evie's features that she knew quite well she had never seen on her own face.

"Oh Elena," she tutted, "you have to think harder, the answer's right in front of you."

Elena looked around the kitchen for a moment, half in confusion and half wondering if anyone was hearing the ridiculous question that she was having so much trouble finding the answer to. She shook her head. "What are Klaus' weaknesses?"

"You."

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Elena was in the kitchen with Stefan and Damon when Caroline knocked on the door. She walked in nervously, looking around and catching all of their eyes – glad not to be catching certain others. Her jacket and shoes had stayed on, showing just how anxious she was, just how ready she was to dash at any time. She looked around the room again before she releasing a breath.

"They're upstairs?"

"Yeah, they're finishing up." Elena answered distractedly, crossing her arms and going to stand by her friend instead of pacing by the fire like she had been before. "I'm nervous for her."

"I'm not," Damon pitched in, leaning farther back in his chair. "It's a stupid plan."

"Not really," Stefan said. "Simple, sure, but I don't think it's stupid."

"Evelina will _never _pass for Elena," Damon was firm on the point, as always. "They look too different."

"Which is why everyone thinks she's a doppelganger," Caroline added with a skeptical roll of her eyes. "It's a good idea...I just don't like that Bonnie has to be in on it."

Elena sighed, seeing the nervous energy that made Caroline bounce her knee and made her eyes flitter back and forth from the stairs. It was hard for Elena to forgive Bonnie for sparing Klaus and lying to them – no matter what the reason – but it must have been even harder for Caroline knowing that Bonnie was ready to sacrifice Tyler so carelessly. "As angry as we are, Care, we're all working for the same thing."

"To get Tyler back," Caroline nodded. "I just wish she didn't have to be the one to do it."

"I think for the most part Evie will be," Elena said with uncertainty. She wasn't quite sure on that part of the plan, but at least what she had heard could make Caroline feel more comfortable with the overall idea. "She was talking about how she needed Bonnie to help her channel power while _she _did the spell. She said Klaus will be hard to take down if he's possessing Tyler and has hybrid blood with hybrid blood. Then she said that pulling him out will take even more than that."

"We can take out Tyler," Damon snorted. "That's not the hard part."

"Jeremy's taking care of the hard part," Stefan chimed in. "He's going to get Klaus' casket so that we can transfer him back where he should be. Not that a desiccated body will help him much – at least, not until he feeds. We'll need to make sure Bonnie and Evie can be pulled away at any sign of trouble. We should have blood to give him, too. No one else needs to get hurt just because he can't stay put."

The three of them nodded to themselves, imagining all the possible scenarios of such a simple plan. So many things could go wrong and yet, if they made it any more complicated, too many things could help tip Klaus off. All in all it had been a good plan – no one seemed to trust the people that were putting it into action.

"Has Jeremy met Evie yet?" Caroline asked suddenly, changing the subject and putting sound back into the quiet living room.

"No, she came back too late last night and he went to get the casket right after school," Caroline nodded, her eyes could not stop themselves from flickering toward the stairs again.

"Do you really think this will work?"

"I think we have to try," Elena sighed, dropping her arms. She didn't like how often people were asking whether or not it was a good idea or whether or not it would work. It was putting doubt in everyone's mind, including hers, and she didn't need more doubt than she already had.

For a long time the four vampires stayed still, listening to the heartbeats and whispers upstairs. Evie was trying to reassure Bonnie. Bonnie was nervous that she had ruined her friendships. Evie was concerned that she would no longer exist. Bonnie was concerned she wouldn't be of help. The whispers of their worries continued until the girls abruptly finished and decided to come downstairs again, Bonnie staying near the stairs when she saw Caroline's tense posture.

It was eerie, seeing the three doppelgangers – or the two doppelgangers and the look-alike – standing in a circle together. Katherine was an important part of the plan too – one that involved straightening her hair and putting her in Elena's clothes and perfume. Evie had donned the same style, losing her darker themed wardrobe to for Elena's bright and casual clothing. Evie was sure that she kept her eyes down while she was walking, it helped with the effect.

"I refuse to cut my hair any more," she said, pulling at the strands of hair falling down her back. It was longer than Elena's when it was curly, nevertheless when they had taken the time to straighten it, but it had been cut to be at least six inches shorter – though still longer than the other two girls standing next to her. "So I'll put it up if I have to. I'm sure I'll still have no problem pulling off 'Elena Gilbert'."

"You won't need to keep up the pretense for long, you'll be the one in the dark," Stefan pointed out to the witch, watching as she nodded. Damon went over to grab himself a glass of whiskey, making Elena sigh.

"Is this really the time?"

"It's the perfect time," he smiled sarcastically before chugging a glass down.

"He's drunk for our first attack plan," Caroline slapped her legs irritably. "Great."

"Maybe we should stick him in rehab," Evie suggested with a morbid appreciation for his frown. "He'd come home a changed man."

"And this town would have a changed population count," he said with as much dry enthusiasm as he could muster. Evie actually bent her head down to hide her laughter and Stefan threw Elena a look. It basically screamed _'stop this, now'_.

"Let's go over the plan," Elena said quickly, clapping her hands loudly. "I'm going to go lurk around the Lockwoods', Katherine is going to go around the Grill, and Evie you're sticking to the woods..."

"Why is Evie in the woods?" Bonnie asked, taking a step further off the step. Caroline took a step closer to the fire, making Bonnie stop moving forward.

"Because her eyes give her away, she needs to be somewhere darker to distort her features," Stefan explained. "Then, whoever finds him first gives the word and we grab him. He'll be weaker in Tyler's body – but he's still a hybrid, so you have to watch out."

"Little Witch is the only one the big-bad-hybrid can't kill if he gives her a love nibble," Damon pointed out with a dark smile toward her. Her eyes narrowed and stayed that way even when Bonnie cleared her throat.

"Who do you think's most likely to catch him?"

"Me," Evie said strongly. "He'll stay out of the public eye because he's supposed to be dead, but Klaus will still need to hunt and he'll stay somewhere he can change into a wolf if he wants to. The woods are the best bet – that's why I'm going."

"Then why aren't we all just going into the woods?" Caroline frowned, Evie took a deep breath as if she were fighting off snapping at her.

"Because scaring him off with our numbers would be counter-productive and I'm bite-proof," she said simply. "One bite won't kill me."

"That's not necessarily true..." Caroline began.

"She'll be fine." Bonnie seemed confident. So confident that she had cut Caroline off despite the tension between them. She was so confident that it left Elena feeling little doubt that she _would _somehow be alright if Tyler came to take a bite out of her. She just had to remember that Evie was a witch and witches were _born _with the ability to protect themselves.

"Alright, well shouldn't a couple of the vampires at least be there for if-"

"When," Evie corrected.

"For _when _he decides to show?" Caroline asked nervously.

"No, you guys lurking around will scare him off and I have the best chance at incapacitating him when he gets close with magic," she seemed to have thought this all through. It was comforting to Elena considering that she had thought the plan was almost _too _simple, that Evie hadn't put enough thought into it. Listening to her answer all the questions without pause helped calm her nerves.

"How?"

"That's for me to know and you to find out," she smiled at Elena. Suddenly Elena was uncomfortable again because that was the first answer she _didn't _have. "But I'm not going alone anyway, didn't you order me a guard?"

"Yeah, that would be me," Stefan walked forward. Evie took a long look at him, sizing him up with a scrutiny Elena wasn't used to seeing on her before Evie shook her head.

"Actually, it will be Damon."

"Damon? No way," Elena cast a nervous glance to Stefan, meeting his eyes and showing the panic that was caused by the news. "Why would you want it to be Damon?"

"Who said I'll even go?" Damon added with a frown.

"You'll go because you want to pick a fight with Klaus," Evie said confidently. "And I'm the best bet for that. And Damon has to go because Stefan can't be around when I do magic."

"Then why can Damon?"

"If I could bring Katherine, I'd prefer her," Evie's eyes rolled while she dodged the question. "But since she's out of stock for today, I'm stuck with second best-" Damon glowered and crushed the crystal tumbler in his hand. "So let's get on with this. I want to shower, my hair feels gross."

The looks passed around the room were awkward but eventually they nodded. Taking a chance was better than waiting for everything to fall apart again and none of them could think about what else there was to dismantle. The job needed to be done and if Evie was willing to do it, who were they to stop her? Elena was sure to hug Evie before she left, Caroline and Bonnie doing the same. Stefan and Katherine got an awkward handshake that was too informal for their relationship but too intimate for how close they really were.

When everyone was gone Evie turned to Damon, tilting her head toward the forest outside of the boarding house. She did not wait for him while she walked out of the house, managing to get to the edge of the woods before looking back at him expectantly.

"You're so brooding right now you almost look like your brother," she snorted. "Come on."

"You're really not nervous," he asked after walking quietly for a while. Silence was boring and she was fun to make fun of. "You like looking for hybrids on the loose?"

"I grew up around hybrids," she was panting a bit, though she was trying to hide it from him. He could hear her heart beat stuttering – either she was very out of shape or she was not as cool and collected as she was trying to let on. "Hybrids don't scare me."

"I guess being able to wave a magic wand must help," Damon conceded. She laughed.

"Yeah, something like that," she looked around her nervously, rubbing her hands on Elena's jeans. "I wish magic were as simple as it sounds. It's hard."

"So, your sisters have different kinds of magic..." he started slowly. He couldn't tell if he was curious because it was so strange or if he was curious because it would benefit him to know what kinds of magic could be done by the future of the Bennett line, but she didn't seem to catch onto the fact he was prying.

"Yeah, we all do. No witch is the same; Ello can manipulate anything alive...or undead," she smirked. "Eva's a channeller and a psychic, and Ella can control...no, not control, more like _encourage _anything to do with nature."

"And what about you?" Damon asked with a raised eyebrow. "What did you get stuck with?"

"Not the fun stuff," she sighed, but didn't give him a real answer.

Both she and Damon wandered deeper into the woods, their voices sounding more and more quiet as they realized just how much Evie's voice did not sound like Elena's. huskier and higher tone – something not as strained about it, as if she were constantly relaxed. She stopped speaking pretty much all together the further around they walked, just so that she wouldn't give them away. Eventually, Damon left her side and hid behind trees, hoping to lure Klaus out with the idea that she was walking alone.

But she was not Elena and he could see it in the way she walked, the way she moved, the sound of her breath which came out too steadily. Elena was never this calm being in the woods, it didn't matter who was there to protect her. How would Evie be able to convince Klaus that she was Elena when she couldn't even _breathe _like her? He wasn't going to show up. He was going to see the threat and he was going to run.

A vibration from his pocket broke through his thoughts and made him jump. He'd thought he'd turned the beeper off. He gritted his teeth as he looked at the text from his little brother.

_Anything?_

Apparently it wasn't just Evie, apparently Klaus had not shown up at all.

A scream shattered the quiet that he and Evie had created in the woods. He started, his eyes flickering to Evie in terror, only to see that she was looking back at him, just as petrified by the sound. It had not been Evie who had screamed.

Who was it then?

Eight hundred meters to their right, the woman screamed again. Both Damon and Evie instinctively took off at a sprint, listening for the woman whose screams had petered off somewhere to their left. Damon's agility landed him there long before Evie and he was glad that he had. He hoped that she would be too late to watch the woman's colour drain from her body as her essence drained into another. He didn't want Evie to have to watch while the blonde's life left her eyes, able to watch as Tyler Lockwood – Klaus – fed on and murdered the young woman – nearly Evie's own age. How would she react to death? Damon didn't know. He certainly didn't want to find out while she looked like Elena and they were facing Klaus – Klaus, who must have restrained feeding for a long time because he was not leaving any room for the girl's survival.

Evie ran into the clearing after the blonde was already dead. Maybe she had not known what she was running toward, maybe she had expected something less gruesome...but instead of running straight up to Klaus, she stopped behind him, turning her head away and letting out a shuttered gasp after she had taken in the scene. Was she really scared, or was she a good actor? Either way, Klaus had taken the time to look at her and she had acted intelligently by looking away and shielding herself from his gaze. Like this, Klaus could not see her eyes. Like this, Klaus would not know that she was something so much more complicated than a doppelganger.

But Klaus was not going to go easily. Klaus was not ready to be caught and captured again, he was not ready to be caught and brought out of his victim's body, just like he was not ready to die. His dark eyes, _Tyler's_ dark eyes, caught Damon's and swivelled back to Evie's before he frowned, his face moulding into a look of terror he was sure Klaus had never played on his own face.

"Elena, Damon – you found me!" Ah, he was hitting below the belt, he was begging for survival. He was going to pretend to be Tyler Lockwood.

"Is she dead?" Evie had asked it so quietly, in such a whisper, that it was hard to hear her voice over the wind. It barely sounded like her own and, even Damon had to admit, it could have easily passed for Elena's. But Klaus looked suspicious – Elena would have been glaring at him by now, Elena would have been aghast and insulted and have given her disgust away...

"I'm sorry – I was held prisoner. I was so thirsty!" Klaus pretended again, pitching Tyler's voice a little bit lower than it normally sounded. "I don't know what happened, I don't know how I survived...Elena-"

He grabbed Evie's arms almost desperately, shaking her roughly until she was forced to look at him. Damon could hear Tyler Lockwood's breath falter with the realization that the woman in front of him was not Elena Gilbert at all. The eerie gray eyes were explanation enough, the gray eyes that held him with such an intense hold he did not know how to struggle away from them. Even Damon, far away and behind the trees, was bewildered by the intensity of her stare. How could he have had the time to realize that she was slowly reaching into her pocket?

"_Honoria_?" the hybrid whispered, even more quietly than she had. She smiled widely, a striking smile that had never belonged to Elena or Katherine, a striking smile with devious intention layered behind it.

"Hello Niklaus."

She slapped the hybrid, causing Damon to move forward – the girl was going to get herself killed before they even caught him! – but instead of attacking, Tyler's body slumped forward onto the ground, his heart stuttering into an even and slow rhythm.

"What the hell?" Damon whispered, his chest aching nervously as he walked toward the hybrid on the ground – but he had to take a step back when he got too close. The smell...the smell was overwhelming. Something he had never smelt before – like wine and danger and cinnamon. It filled his lungs like smoke, heavy and present, something that he could feel swirling around inside of him.

On Klaus' face was a bloody handprint.

"That's why I couldn't bring Stefan," she explained, somewhat panting while she lifted up Tyler's eyelid and checked something. Whatever it was she found – or didn't find – made her sigh and rock back onto her heels. Damon looked to the bloody handprint scraping across Tyler's cheek and shook his head, trying to keep his eyes focused on Evie.

"What are you talking about?"

"That's why it had to be you. You know control," Evie took the time to smile. "I'm a blood witch, Damon."

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**Well, Klaus is almost back! What does everyone think? I'm absolutely loving the response I've been getting for this story, please keep it up :) To my fabulous reviewers:**

_SomebodyWhoCares_**: I love the Originals, completely **_**adore**_** them, so I wanted to make sure that they were all important and incorporated. You'll have to wait to find out about Rebekah, but you won't have to wait too long...**

_SilverMoonlit_**: Only Katherine could get away with killing a teacher to save a grade, hope you liked this chapter and thank you for reviewing!**

_nickiR0x_**: Ha, don't worry Damon will start to realize his feelings for Evie soon enough – but I'm not going to make it easy. It's not realistic that he'd fall for Evie fast considering he's in love with Elena and it's not likely that Evie would fall for him considering she doesn't know or trust him. I also think that Klaus and Caroline are adorable – I kind of want to just push them together in the show and scream "KISS!" but apparently TV screens are made of solid matter... anyway thank you for reviewing!**

_Tvdlover87654_**: I'm glad you like it, thanks for the reviews!**

_Angel of the Night Watchers_**: I haven't tried accessing the site from my phone, to be honest, but either way since I'm writing I'd be doing it on my laptop. Allergy tests suck, I've gotten a few but they aren't as bad as they were when I was a kid...it included needles in the back way back then. The weather here is warm during the day but cool at night. I'm really appreciating the last bit of sunlight before the snow comes - I do not like snow. Not one bit. I am the clumsiest person in history and I can't explain how many times a day I slip on ice! Yes, they're making the other Hunger Games books into movies - it'll be really hard. I have trouble thinking of how they'll pull the last book off, but I think it will be FANTASTIC if they can. And I have heard of Pitch Perfect, I'm going to go see it with my friend at some point, hopefully the next time our schedules coincide :)  
**

_Egyptian Kiss_**: I'm glad you like it! The name Honoria does keep popping up, doesn't it? And I love Elijah, he's such a fantastic character. I'm glad you like it, thanks so much for the review :)**

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**Thank you for your thoughts everyone, I love hearing from you all! Please keep it up and give me inspiration, which I always get when people ****review!**

**-Egypt**


	10. Concentration

**Hello everyone! I have an exciting chapter lined up for you today. Who's excited for the premiere of this season of Vampire Diaries on Thursday? I know I am! Anyway, this is a pretty exciting chapter so I won't hold you up anymore. Enjoy!**

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Chapter Nine – Concentration

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"Alright, let me get this straight," Caroline began slowly, her eyes drifting from one vampire to the next. "We finally got possessed-Tyler back, the coffin is on its way, Evie is a blood witch that bitch-slapped Klaus in the face and survived, and she decided that _now _is the best possible time for her to have a shower?"

"You hit the nail on the head, good job." Katherine drawled from the couch.

"I think she's more upset than she's letting on," Elena said slowly, trying to defend Evie. She had seen her when she had walked in: ashen faced and ripping snarky comments. She'd seen that kind of stoic defense before: she'd done it and Damon had done it, Stefan had even done it once or twice in his darker days. Now Evie had done it too – maybe she was not as tough as she let on. "She had blood all over her."

"Her blood," Damon reminded with a point to the ceiling. "Most of it was _her_ blood. Don't forget that we still need to have an intervention with this little witch so we can figure out what exactly she means when she calls herself a _blood witch. _Sounds like some form of Satanic ritual to me: I don't usually like to roll with those crowds. Well, at least not anymore."

"There was one point you did?" Caroline asked skeptically.

"Of course," he smirked. "Most of those rituals involve blood and sex...not all of us here are prudes."

Caroline scoffed and moved away with him, while Stefan held up his hands to stop the oncoming argument.

"Come on, let's all give her a break. She did exactly what we asked her to and she managed to knock out an Original – that's not easy work," he reminded. Elena nodded because she, from experience, knew the truth behind it. "But I do want to hear more about their reactions to each other. You said that both of them responded strangely, Damon."

"Strangely's a bit of an understatement," Damon stretched as he said it, giving a shrug when he finished. "She looked pretty pleased to knock him out – not that anyone wouldn't be..."

"What happened so that she could get so close to Klaus and hit him with blood?"

"She followed the plan," he said sarcastically. "She didn't want to go and sacrifice herself like _someone_ else: she waited for me to get there first to make sure she'd be safe...maybe for once we'll have a _smart _hero on our hands, _Elena_."

"And she won't fall for you either," Elena bit back. Katherine smiled wickedly in the background and Damon sneered at them both.

"Well, she played it smart – at least _one _person with Petrova lineage will make it out human," he hissed out. Elena's eyes hardened, he could see the blame running through her eyes as she remembered that it was _his _blood that had changed her. Never mind that he hadn't put the blood in her, of course, but to her it would always be his fault. "Evelina pretended to be Elena right until he went up and turned her around. He recognized her too, or maybe I should say he recognized that he _didn't _recognize her...then again, he did call her 'Honoria'."

"Honoria?" Caroline asked loudly, her eyes swivelling to Elena's and showing their discomfort. Elena's eyebrows furrowed as they both imagined back to Elijah's response to Evie. "Isn't that..."

"That's what Elijah called her at the Grill," Elena nodded slowly to herself, looking over to Katherine as the older doppelganger crossed her legs, a smug look crossing her face. She was getting comfortable for an interrogation, Elena realized with a frown. "She said she didn't know who that was."

"Honoria Fell was the wife of the Fell who founded Mystic Falls," Damon explained, moving to stand closer to the fire so that they could all see each other. "You remember, don't you, Stefan?"

"When Katherine was locked in the tomb-"

"Or so we thought," Damon added with an acidic smile to the woman on the couch.

"I killed her and her husband," Stefan said slowly, making sure that Elena wasn't too upset by it.

She opened her mouth to respond but couldn't think of anything to say to it. She was lucky that she had as many people to help her through the transition as she did, she had to remember that Stefan and Damon had not had that luxury. Ignoring the fact that their father had tried to kill them on top of that, it just meant that she should remember they had to learn how to be vampires completely on their own. It was a burden she could only imagine and was lucky she would never have to face.

"But," Damon's voice ripped her from her thoughts. "The two look nothing alike. Honoria was all old bitchy and..._old_..."

"So what are we missing?" Stefan sighed, his fish covering his mouth as if to stop the theories from popping freely from his mouth. Damon's eyes swivelled to the couch again.

"Yes, _Katherine_, what _are _we missing?" Damon added pointedly.

"Why ask me?"

The innocence was so put on that it was clear Katherine had been waiting for them to question her for the entire conversation. Elena couldn't stop the feeling of red-hot anger bubbling in the pit of her stomach – the boiling that she only ever felt when Katherine was near. It had worsened with her new temper and the heightened emotions – it had made her more and more willing to ease it and the only way she could picture helping the feeling go away was to rip something apart.

And Elena _did _have the genuine want to rip her mirror image apart for all the hurt she'd caused...she'd turned Stefan and Damon and Caroline, when Caroline had done nothing wrong, she'd done countless of other things that warranted someone ripping her apart...but Evie said they needed her...and Elena was trying to do everything to trust the girl who probably just wanted to help and then get home.

"Because you're grinning like the Cheshire cat," Damon hissed to Katherine, who didn't try to suppress her smile after that. "What do you know?"

"I never said that I know anything," she shrugged, looking away. "What I'd call it is closer to a theory."

"I like a story as much as the next bloodthirsty, homicidal vampire," Damon's eyes narrowed at her and did not move until there was a loud pounding on the door that made Elena nearly jump from her skin.

"Hey, guys!" The shout alerted everyone and made them sit up straighter, watching while Bonnie came inside – head down and trying to remain invisible from her guilt – while Jeremy and Matt groaned their way through the front door and manoeuvred in a large, mahogany casket. The casket that they all recognized as holding Klaus' desiccated body.

"Ready to introduce all the bad back into our lives?" Matt asked sarcastically, letting go of the coffin unceremoniously. None of them seemed worried about the occupant inside. Matt looked around the group, for a moment before his eyes landed on Katherine. "Alright, so you're Katherine, not Evie, because you don't have 'creepy eyes'-"

Elena gave a glare to Damon, who would be the only one to be so rude, where he shrugged and tried to look innocent. "She _does_."

"Yeah, where _is _the other look-alike?" Jeremy asked, rubbing his hands on his jeans before shoving them in his pockets. Bonnie walked forward a little bit, but stayed mainly behind Matt – the one person who evidently had not seemed to blame her as much for what she had done with Klaus.

"The new addition to our Scooby-Doo Gang is showering," Damon informed, walking over the coffin and taking a peek inside.

There was nothing different about the body – he still looked like the same pathetic vampire who had ruined all their lives. His veins were mutated and distended, his skin was gray and lifeless. It was sadistic, the smirk that crossed Damon's face for a moment, before he tried wiping it up and looking back up at the two guys.

"You made good time for not having a truck anymore," he said to Matt, whose eyes moved to Elena before nodding.

"Yeah, I bought another one off of Laurence from school – his dad fixes 'em up."

"Still," Damon shrugged. "Pretty good time."

"Well, that's how I roll," Jeremy snipped, obviously wanting not to talk about his sister's not-quite-full death experience. He turned his head, instead, to look at Tyler who was laid out on the couch with Katherine. "Poor Tyler."

"He's going to be fine, just like Alaric had been," Elena comforted, though it was clear from the look on everyone's faces that it wasn't quite comforting at all. How could it be, when Alaric's death had gotten them into this mess. "Now we need a plan on how not to let him kill us when he gets out..."

"Why can't we just kill him?" Jeremy sighed, kicking at the casket before stretching his arms behind his back.

"He starts Tyler's bloodline, Jer," Elena reminded, frowning mournfully. "And maybe even ours. You know, whether we bring him back or not, we did this to him and he's not going to be happy."

"His mood swings are the easiest part to handle," Evie called, her voice echoing loudly. She was saying it from closer to her room. Elena could her new black leather boots clinking against the hardwood before she appeared a minute later on the stairs, taking time to scrunch her wet hair with a towel. She smiled down the steps. "Oh look, new helpers."

"I thought you said she _wasn't _a doppelganger?" Jeremy leaned in to whisper to his sister, apparently not well enough because Evie frowned at him.

"That's because I'm not," she informed. "I'm a witch: the name's Evie Austen, to be exact."

"Not a very futuristic name," Matt shook her hand. "I'm Matt Donovan."

"It's kind of a family honour thing – honour the dead. I guess since mine is supposed to represent Elena and Caroline, it would mean honouring the _un_dead_. Evelina _Austen's the name, it's nice to meet you, Matt. You must be Jeremy," she took the time to shake his hand and smile as well.

"So," Jeremy began awkwardly, not very subtly moving away from her as soon as they had let go of one another's hands. He looked behind Matt and looked at Bonnie briefly. "You're Elena and Bonnie's descendant?"

"One of them," she nodded.

"And you're _really _from the future? You know what happens to us?"

"I'm _really _from the future or else I wouldn't be a _descendant,_" she mocked him with a smile. "And no, neither of you ever win the lottery. Save your money and give up now."

"Damn," Jeremy laughed.

"It's alright, keep drawing monsters and demons, artsy-boy," she smirked. "That'll come in handy for you one day."

His eyes lit up, his mouth opening and closing a few times as the information sank in. "It will?"

"I've said my piece now leave it alone," she said simply, moving over toward the coffin and placing her hands on her hips. She examined it for a long moment before she sighed. "Alright, let's get this mummy moving-"

"Wait," Elena said quickly, stepping forward a bit so that she could be face to face with Evie. "Shouldn't we make sure he won't come straight out and kill any of us? He's going to be mad."

"Very mad," Bonnie echoed quietly. Caroline crossed her arms over her chest just at the sound of her voice, making Bonnie sigh and move toward Evie. Both witches nodded to each other as their greeting, but their eyes fell again to the coffin in front of them.

"I guess," the gray-eyed witch sighed. "Alright...how to do that, how should I contain him...hmm..." she pulled at a curl, straightening it through her fingers while she thought. Bonnie stayed quiet. "Ugh, _fine, _I'm going to need so many band-aids...Damon, come here for a sec."

"Why?" His face was contorted for a moment – he didn't want to have to be too close to her when she had that _smell _on her – the smell of blood that she had slapped over Tyler's cheek. She had washed it off as soon as they were near the house, but he still didn't like the way he'd reacted to it in the woods.

"So I can do voodoo on you – why do you _think_? Katherine already agreed to it, stop being such a pussy." She sneered. "If you want me to be able to help, I have to cut myself-"

"You _what?_" Jeremy looked helplessly around the room, but no one cared to explain why she had to.

"Cut myself. You know, with a knife. And then the...uh...less _experienced_ vampires in the room might start to frenzy. So you're going to come here so you and Katherine can be super-duty club bouncers and keep me safe from anyone who might interrupt the spell. You got that?"

"I'm an avid bloodaholic," Damon frowned. "Why me?"

"Because you're a _controlled _bloodaholic," she hissed back, her eyes flashing to the side where Stefan stood for a moment before her eyes narrowed on him. "Don't make me _make _you."

"Your wish is my command," he muttered sarcastically, even going as far to fake a bow. Damon tried to keep his face impassive as he moved toward her, especially when he noticed that Katherine didn't seem at all bothered when she moved forward as well. It made Damon's suspicions rise.

So now Katherine was just blindly doing what Evie said? What had happened during their walk on the woods that made Katherine trust Evie so much and more importantly, what had happened that made her give a shit enough to stick around to trust her in the first place?

"Perfect. You," Evie pointed at Elena, Stefan and Caroline with black fingernails – they must have been recently painted. "Put your backs against the wall farthest away from me. I already know that you guys are about to struggle with this simply because you're going to be stubborn and not listen to the warning I'm giving you – this one right now – this one about how strong my blood will smell..."

"You mean it will smell good?" Elena asked nervously, clenching her teeth. She hadn't been around too many heartbeats at once yet, but she had done well. Then again if Evie was warning them of it – and she had already seen Damon's reaction to being so close to Tyler after the blood-slap – she was nervous that her reaction might be just as bad as Evie feared.

"No, still smells like iron and death," she frowned with a long sigh. "I mean, I still smell like me, just like you still smell like you. This isn't some romance fanger novel where someone smells better than someone else because of essence – I'm not that creative," she smirked.

"So why is it then?"

"It's because my blood smells concentrated. It'll kick up your thirst because your body will think the potency of three drops of my blood smells like three _pints. _That kind of smell will set vampires off – particularly ones that can't control the instinct yet. It's a biological need for vamps: if that much blood is around you, your body will think you've made a kill. Then you frenzy."

Elena instinctively put her hand over her nose and mouth, glad she was overwhelmed by the smell of her own perfume. Evie's eyes turned toward Stefan, she was stern – but the look was somehow still empathetic. When he nodded to him meaningfully.

"Will you need to leave?"

"He'll be fine," Damon interrupted, his eyes hard on him. "Won't you brother?"

Evie waited a moment, watching carefully while Stefan nodded. She did not move for a long while, analyzing him, waiting for some sign or other. When she seemed confident about the fact he was at least attempting to control himself, she turned back toward the coffin.

"Hey before you leave, will you come and help move the coffin here?" Evie asked Matt and Jeremy.

"Leave?" Matt guffawed. "I'm not going anywhere."

"In case they frenzy, you are." Evie said with such strength it was almost hard to argue her. Almost.

"No way! I want to make sure Tyler's all right just as much as everyone else-" Jeremy began but Elena shook her head, her anxiety levels so high that she wasn't even taking the chance to humour him.

"Get out, guys."

"Elena, seriously, we'll be-"

"Out." Evie demanded. "Wait upstairs. You'll know when it's over."

Matt and Jeremy were reluctant to help move the casket now that they wouldn't be able to stay and watch the show. Still, they made sure to put it exactly where Evie had asked, moving it so that she could stand directly beside Tyler who laid on the couch and have Klaus' coffin on her other side and walked up stairs muttering curses. While they swore, Bonnie dug through her grimoire, pointing out a spell to Evie silently. Evie looked at it briefly before responding with a nod, digging deep into her pocket and picking up the same knife that had cut her hand earlier. Without so much as a hesitation or readying breath Evie pressed the blade into her thumb.

While she waited for the blood to flow, the vampires held their breath. The smell was so potent that it nearly stung Damon's eyes – it was even stronger in a room like this – and something told him that the muttering in whatever witchy language she was muttering in was only making the potency worse while she dragged her bleeding thumb around the edge of the coffin.

"By the pricking of my thumb, something wicked this way comes..." she sounded like she was joking but no one laughed with her: they were too busy holding their breath. The smell was unlike anything the Damon had ever smelt. He remembered it from the forest – the smell of danger, red wine and cinnamon – but it was stronger now, now that he was in an enclosed space. It was like instead of pricking her thumb she had slit her own throat...

_His_ throat burned at the thought.

"You're all so serious," Evie mumbled to herself, removing her thumb from the wood of the coffin. She checked it for a moment to see how much blood was flowing from it before making a fist around it to cut off its access to air. "That should keep him immobile and in the coffin until I let him out, got it? You're all safe. Now breathe, stay calm, don't try to smell me. Bonnie, let's do this."

Bonnie seemed more than excited to right her wrongs while she walked forward to meet Evie between Tyler and Klaus. She held the grimoire carefully in front of her, but Evie didn't need to look at it while she chanted. Instead she walked between the two men – chanting and watching them and walking to the other, then repeating the pattern. She would wait a moment, say a few words, and move to the side again – after a moment she let out something that sounded like a groan of pain before she shook her head and continued as she had been doing.

The candles flickered and the fire seemed to lick at the carpet toward the witches, the fire looked as if it wanted to engulf them and burn the coffin to destroy what lay inside of it. Maybe that's exactly what they needed, Damon couldn't help think. if they could just give up on Tyler, Klaus would die too...maybe they weren't part of his bloodline – they hadn't died with his body, had they?

Evie's eyes caught him in the middle of his quiet musings. Her eyes were intense, the gray in it swirling like a thunderstorm filled with sharp, silver bolts of lightning. Before he even had time to ponder what the deep look meant, Evie took the blade to her skin and let out a hiss as her blood spilled over the blade and dripped onto the hardwood. Apparently her thumb would not give enough blood, nor would reopening the earlier cut to her hand...no, for this spell Evie had sacrificed her own wrist.

Elena slapped her other hand over top of the first, this time focusing on her nose. She felt her eyes changing as everything around her took on a bloodied hue, she felt her teeth shifting and itching to bite into flesh. This was too much. This was too much for her to handle.

Beside her, Stefan closed his eyes.

Damon watched, holding his breath and completely enthralled by her actions while she dripped her blood onto Tyler's chest. She held it above him, letting the blood collect before Damon saw the blood begin to pool and...was the blood _moving?_

It was moving. It was moving across his chest and creating a spider web in the pattern of his veins from his heart all the way down to his right arm. Bonnie grabbed the webbed and bloodied wrist, holding it for Evie to examine – neither of them ceased their chanting, even when Evie closed her eyes for a moment and swayed...she was losing blood quickly and bending down to Tyler's level did her no favours for energy.

Evie took a shuttering breath, taking a brief moment to control her swaying before she gripped the silver blade in her hand again. In once fluid movement, Evie sliced through Tyler's wrist.

Caroline let out a sob beside Elena, removing her hand so that she could call out Tyler's name. Katherine stiffened beside Damon, her eyes on Caroline with a concentration he had never seen before. Katherine's hands fisted as her nostrils flared...Katherine was trying to control herself.

While the blood flowed from Tyler's wrist, Evie swivelled on her heel and pulled Tyler's arm up so suddenly that his unconscious body jerked toward her and where she held the wrist over the coffin. She pressed Tyler's wrist to Klaus' lips.

Bonnie's continuous chanting became louder and somehow more violent. The house felt like it was shaking, or maybe it was Damon's ear drums. He had the urge to cover his ears, he didn't want to hear Bonnie's chanting and he could hear Evie's racing heartbeat and smell her blood and hear her laboured breathing as she tried to concentrate through her blood loss.

This was too much.

He had to get out of here.

But suddenly, the chanting was not the only thing reverberating through his skull. Now there was a screaming – Tyler. Tyler was screaming while Evie held his wrist to Klaus' mouth. His eyes were open, unseeing and black as he wailed.

Caroline screamed with him.

And then, the body in the coffin gasped.

Klaus was awake.

As Caroline screamed and gasped, the full impact of Evie's blood seemed to smack her against the face. Her eyes, already red and burning zeroed in on the woman who held Tyler's hand and fed him to the monster in the coffin. It was all she could see, her mind was puzzled together into a wrong, disorganized picture of what was supposed to be happening. She couldn't remember. Why couldn't she remember? Why was Evie letting Klaus drain Tyler?

The blood. There was so much blood.

Whose blood?

Whose blood was puddled on the floor, whose blood was being fed to Klaus, whose blood coated Tyler's arm? Was it Tyler's or Evie's? Why was there so much blood? Whose blood?

...Tyler's blood.

"Get away from him!" Caroline screamed, diving toward Evie.

"Caroline, don't!" Stefan yelled, barreling toward her. He was caught by the throat by Damon, who sneered at him. He tried to tell him to stay in control – but Damon couldn't find his words. The smell was worse now, the smell was drowning him...the blood was _everywhere._

Katherine had not stopped Caroline from her pounce and she screamed as she smacked into the witch. Evie screamed too, her stomach slapping the ground and her forehead cracking against the wooden floor.

"Caroline, no!" Evie screamed, let out a stifled sob when the blonde's fangs dug into the skin of her neck. There was a moment where the smell worsened, when the blood was so strong that Damon felt like he was already drinking it, like it was his mouth against her throat.

And then Caroline screamed, scrambling like a crab away from her, hand over her bloodied lips.

"Oh my God," she whispered. "Evie, I didn't mean..."

But Evie's neck was bleeding profusely now. Stefan started to struggle, his hands ripping into Damon's knuckles as he tried to escape the hold – his eyes were empty as they stared at the blood covering Evie's neck. It didn't matter that she had put her hand up to stop the flow.

Evie rolled onto her stomach, her eyes looking between the couch and the coffin, looking between the predatory eyes that hungered for her weakness that rained through her fingers. She moaned, falling back onto the floor again.

"You're awake," she whispered, her heart slowing. It slowed as her eyes closed, and it slowed more until it was no more than a dull beating, like the headache fogging Damon's thoughts. It slowed while her neck stopped pulsating blood through her hand.

And then it stopped completely.

* * *

**Dun, dun, dun! What's happened now? Klaus and Tyler are awake – but did it all work right? And poor Evie, she did warn them and she knew they wouldn't listen – she should have gotten some better bodyguards! To my fantastic reviewers:**

_SomebodyWhoCares_**: I guess you'll just have to wait and see what it all means...thanks for the review :)**

_Tvdlover87654_**: He did get bitch slapped. I thought that would be a fun way to let everyone find out about her little technicalities when it comes to spells. Hope you enjoyed this chapter and thanks for the review!**

_nickiR0x_**: I agree, I think that if Evie weren't worried about the possibility of her not existing, we would have some other problems besides the idea of her not existing, ha. I won't spoil anything for you, but you will be seeing a little bit into Evie's future – not that I'll tell you when, why or how yet...and you'll have to wait for the other questions too! Sorry, but it's an author's secret. **

_SilverMoonlit_**: Yes, I thought being a blood witch would be an interesting change. I purposefully tried not to make her like a 'Bella Swan' character and make her blood 'smell delicious' or anything, even to Damon. Then again, I don't know if danger, cinnamon and wine would taste good or not. Not to me. Hope you liked this chapter and thanks for the review :)**

_susl_**: Thanks for the review! I'm glad that you like the story, hopefully this chapter was a fun read. I guess you'll have to wait to hear about how Evie and Klaus know each other, but at least now he's back!**

_Angel of the Night Watchers_**: Yeah, my dog and I don't do walking in the winter very well. I've fallen more than a number of times – I suggest some sort of padding like snow pants. You may look ridiculous, but it will save you a number of cuts and bruises. How was Perfect Pitch, did you like it? **

_Mujona_**: Wow, that's so cool! I was hoping Evie fit into the plot well enough, I'm glad you were fooled, even just for a minute! Thanks for the review, I really appreciate it :)**

_BlueRose22_**: Yup, she's a blood witch. Apparently a pretty good one too – Klaus is awake!**

_ally0212_**: You will find out who Honoria is when we delve deeper into Evie's past and everything that the characters know are linked into her (and their) future. As you can see she has to use blood to perform spells, but I will be explaining it more next chapter. I know these are shorter than my normal chapters, they'll get longer as the story goes on and gets more intricate. I hope you liked this chapter and thanks for the review!**

_flazzy cullen_**: I'm glad you like it so far, thank you for reviewing! Hopefully you still liked it after this chapter :)**

* * *

**Wow, ten reviews! That's so exciting. I love reviews and they really inspire me to write so please send some more in everyone – I promise if I get ten reviews for this chapter, I'll release another chapter before next week, like I plan...tempting?**

**So please **_**REVIEW**_**!**

**-Egypt**


	11. Awoken

**So, it's been a couple weeks for this one. I'm sorry everyone! My computer's keyboard literally SEPARATED from my laptop – did you know that could happen? I didn't – so I couldn't really write anything new until I got it fixed. My other story, Green Eyed Monster was already written chapters ahead so I could just do that mostly from my superphone. So I'm sorry for the wait, but I promise that I made this one exciting!**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

Chapter Ten – Awoken

* * *

"I didn't mean to," Caroline assured quietly, continuing to methodically run her fingers through Tyler's hair. He was unconscious again, but he was breathing, which was comfort enough for Caroline to feel relieved and guilty for attacking Evie – which in itself had been a mix of defense for Tyler and hunger for the girl herself. Then there was Klaus, still in his coffin but no longer desiccated; it was clear that the Original was not conscious either. And Evie, having been taken upstairs, was just as lost to the world as they were. It made Caroline unsure of who her tears were really meant for. "I don't know what happened."

"She warned us that her blood affected vampires differently," Elena tried to soothe, sitting on the arm of the couch near where Caroline sat under Tyler. Elena meant ever word she said, too, considering she was still having a problem being in the room at all. Evie's blood had been cleaned from the hardwood but it had not yet been taken off the coffin as it was still necessary – the small amount still burnt her senses just being near it, her face still twitching between normality and monster thanks to how overpowering the few drops was. "We just didn't guess how much it would."

"But she warned us that we wouldn't know...I just couldn't take it," she sniffled, trying not to mention that Elena had been able to control herself – the point had already been brought up a few times and she had been shut down for it just as many. "The blood, Tyler screaming...it was like by instinct all the blood was Tyler's and I thought she was – that she'd..."

"It's alright, she won't blame you," Stefan assured her again. "When she wakes up you can apologize."

"What if she doesn't?" Caroline whispered even more softly. "What if I hurt her?"

"You didn't," Elena stated firmly, though she instinctively listened for the slow heartbeat again. It could still be heard upstairs and was an instant comfort for them all. "Evie hurt you, did you even take a look at your face?"

Elena was trying to make light of it, but the blonde in front of her had definitely been affected by the bite she had made in Evie's neck. Caroline cried a little harder – a mix between a cry and a laugh – and placed one hand to the wounds on her lips that were still healing. If anyone had to guess, they would think that Evie's blood had turned to acid in her mouth and had burnt her from the inside out. It had been the only reason that Caroline had stopped – it had to have been painful. To make matters worse it was taking three times as long to heal than it normally would, as if it was being held open by poison. A good defense for someone whose blood was a power source of its own.

"Do you think it worked? Do you think that Tyler is Tyler and Klaus is Klaus?" Jeremy asked, standing behind the coffin with Matt and Stefan while they looked down at Tyler. Caroline continued running her hands through his hair shaking her head in not knowing whether or not it was true. Was it really that simple? Some blood, some chanting and suddenly everything was back to normal?

"It had to," Caroline whispered.

"It had to," Matt echoed, looking to Elena hopelessly, but his message to her was lost while Damon noisily trotted down the stairs and toward them.

"You know for a squatter, she isn't that bad," Damon thought loudly as he came down the stairs. "Besides, now that's she's out like a light, she isn't as annoying. How are these sleeping beauties?"

"Still passed out," Elena sighed, standing up so she could stretch her legs. "We don't know if it worked yet."

"Well, let's wake them up," Damon stated simply before starting to move to the coffin. Almost immediately, Stefan stopped him with an arm clotheslined against his chest. Damon stopped walking and frowned at the contact.

"That's not your best idea, brother."

"And not my worst," Damon acknowledged with a glare. "Listen, until the Wicked Witches of the East, West and 15th century upstairs come back down to do more of their voodoo, we don't really have any other options. So, let's wake them up and check the damage."

"He's right," Caroline frowned, squirming slightly so that she could get out from under Tyler without jostling him much. "We need to know whether or not it worked."

"Caroline, it can wait..."

"No, it can't," Caroline said strongly. "I need to know whether or not I have Tyler back because if I don't I just attacked Evie for nothing. So, we may as well try."

"None of you are worried about what will happen?" Matt asked, looking to each of them nervously. "If it did work, Klaus will be Klaus – isn't that a problem in itself?"

"Matt's right," Jeremy agreed, "what if Klaus decides to kill us all?"

"Evie locked him into the coffin," Elena argued, frowning towards Stefan nervously.

"I say we take the chance," Damon said simply. "Today's as good as any to die, isn't it?"

"That's not funny, Damon," Stefan frowned. "We need to think about this."

"And she's weak and unconscious – what if the magic doesn't hold?" Elena pointed out. "He's going to come right after us."

"Well, not you," Damon smirked. "So long as you keep it to yourself that you no longer have to breathe."

"And even if you do wake him up, what then?" Jeremy added. "If he stays in the coffin are you just going to keep him there?"

"Until Evie wakes up and tells us what to do with him, I think that's our only option," Stefan sighed, moving away from Damon so that he could walk and look at the man in the coffin. He looked the exact same as when he had been breathing not long ago – only now he was more of a thorn in the side than before. He would need vengeance for them stopping his heart and with everyone exposed and vulnerable as they were, he didn't want to risk someone getting killed.

Then again, how would they ever know if they had done something right unless they woke him up? He doubted even Evie would be able to check her handiwork if he was unconscious and they were able to outnumber him.

Stefan sighed, looking over to Matt and Jeremy. "I think it's time that you two leave."

"What? No!" Jeremy argued immediately. "Evie said he'd stay in the coffin, we're not in any danger."

"No, Stefan's right," Elena argued, moving toward him. "You have to go, just in case."

"What about you?" Matt frowned. "He'll go after you too."

"They'll need the muscle if we have to take him down again," she lied, nearly effortlessly. She gave the two boys a pained smile. "Leave before Damon compels you to...please."

The boys looked at each other darkly, looking back to the coffin again before sighing dejectedly. With quick looks around the room they left the house. Everyone waited with baited breath as they heard Matt's new truck start up and roll along the gravel until they were gone.

"It's now or never, brother," Damon taunted. "You don't have any more excuses now."

"I'm not making excuses," Stefan argued. "I'm worried over people's safety."

"Well if you're really that scared then stay out of the way," Damon mumbled back, not missing a beat before he moved over to the coffin. Damon had every intention of waking up Klaus in the rudest and most abrupt ways as possible before Stefan – _again _– placed his arm in front of him to stop him.

"I'll do it," Stefan said tersely. Damon raised his eyes questioningly, but seemed to believe him considering he gave him a look and moved aside, in front of Elena and Caroline...just in case.

"Klaus," Stefan called cautiously, crossing his arms over his chest as he watched for the Original's eyes to open. There was no reaction. Stefan was unnerved, but after a pointed look from Damon tried again. There was still no response to the conscious world. Then on the third time, Stefan reached his hand down into the coffin and gave Klaus' arm a slight push that would have been more of a nudge were he not so nervous and quick to get it over with. It jostled Klaus just as Stefan recoiled.

Klaus' eyes opened.

The Original was not bleary eyed or dazed. He seemed as if he knew exactly where he was and exactly what had happened to him. Taking his time, Klaus looked around the room carefully before sitting up in his coffin, again eyeing everyone around him. Elena took two nervous steps backward while he observed his surroundings, stretching his arms above his head and over the open lid of the casket. Fear paralyzed the entire group.

The magic wasn't holding. Klaus he was sitting up. When he was done stretching and analysing being sucked back into his body, Klaus would come to kill them all.

"Not the worst way to be woken up," he spoke simply, shattering the silence in the room as if he were breaking the sound barrier. "I see you found your way around my little body deviation. Was Honoria the mastermind around that?"

"Who's Honoria?" Elena couldn't help herself from asking, her mind flickering back to Elijah's interruption in the Grill and what Damon had said of Klaus' first reaction to seeing her. Honoria meant something specifically to the Originals and for some reason the girl – who could be mistaken for a doppelganger – was the one they had pinpointed for it. Why?

Klaus' eyes landed on her again and he took his time to examine, summed her up, watching her from his casket before he sighed. "Ah, I see you've been turned. Who had the pleasure?"

"Your sister," Elena hissed back, ignoring the fact that he shook his head and let out a chuckle. "And it was an accident. She meant to kill me."

Klaus' face darkened. "I'll have to have a word with her."

"I think that's the least of your problems right now, don't you?" Stefan asked, cocking his head to the side and stealing the attention away from Elena. She was glad, she didn't like feeling like she had no defense or protection from the Original who had already been let out of his cage. Klaus looked at him again, his face morphing into one of anger while his eyes flickered around the group again.

"Where is she?"

"Rebekah? She was at the bar trying to seduce me last time I checked," Damon sighed, trying to seem calm. Anyone who was looking would have seen how tense he was – but no one could really find the time to. He crossed his arms as well, making sure to obscure Elena behind his back when Klaus' eyes flickered over to her again.

"I'm certain that seducing you was the last thing on her mind," Klaus stated, looking at him again. "And I was referring to Honoria."

"This Honoria," Stefan began carefully. "What does she look like?"

"Like Elena," Klaus pretended as if he were speaking to a five year old, "only different."

"Ah, so you remember ol'gray eyes," Damon nodded carefully, frowning a bit. "How do you know her?"

"We conversed once or twice back in the day," Klaus smirked slightly to himself, taking the time to stretch out his back. Caroline, finished seething and being terrified by then, spoke up.

"That's impossible."

"How so?" Klaus asked doubtfully, still, it seemed the grin would not be wiped off his face.

"She's not from the past," Elena finished. "She came to help us clean up the mess you made."

"The mess _I _made," he repeated amusedly. "And you're sure she came to help _you_?"

"Bonnie called for her," Elena held firm. "She answered. And her name is _not_ Honoria."

Something terrible sparked behind Klaus' eyes. Something horrible and somehow she could tell it was something mischievous and something bloody. It was something like a plan, or an awareness, or something that would get them all buried six feet under. The look in Klaus' eyes was one of horrid _realization_ – and it was horrid because he was so _pleased_.

"And what is the witch's name, then?"

"Evelina," Bonnie responded boldly as she came down the stairs, Katherine in toe.

"Katherine, I didn't expect yourself to align against me – I thought I'd taught you better than that." Klaus tutted forcefully. Katherine clenched her jaw.

"I'm staying alive," she countered.

"And the miraculous witch who worked all this," he motioned to the casket around him. "Where is she?"

"Evie's upstairs and alright, just tired." Bonnie bit back, looking over Damon's shoulder to Caroline who nodded thankfully.

"Evelina – _Evie_," Klaus repeated with a grin. "Pretty name."

"Do you know what's _really _pretty about her?" Damon snapped, he couldn't stand the feeling that Klaus was keeping something from them when they were supposed to have the upper hand on _him_. "What will be really pretty is when we use her to help put you and your siblings into the ground for good."

"Ah, are you trying to get her to separate the bloodlines from meeting the same fate as their makers? A good plan, I daresay, but it seems lackluster in your approach." When no one answered him, he seemed to think that no one was catching on to what he was insinuating, so he continued. "A simple spell to return me to my body has wounded her, sounds like. The magic behind separating a descending bloodline will prove much more difficult."

"She'll have me," Bonnie countered darkly, taking a step toward his coffin. Stefan took a step in front of her, warning her off going any closer – the magic had not stayed and though Klaus had not been given a reason to climb out of his casket yet, that did not mean that he wouldn't find one.

"And aren't you just a bucket of talent," Klaus smiled sarcastically before raising his eyebrows. "I seem to recall you only work under duress."

"Everyone's under duress if you're near enough to make a memory of it," Caroline ground out, immediately swaying a little more so she could be hidden by Damon's shoulder. Klaus clicked his tongue.

"Now sweetheart, that's just not true. You were under no form of duress when you kissed me."

"Because it wasn't _you_," she hissed back, glaring at him with as much strength as she could – and anger had obviously given her more strength because just the memory made her want to take the stake and kill him. Even if it meant screwing the chances on whether or not they would all die because of it.

"Ah, but it was me, wasn't it?" His smile turned cheeky. "It was quite enjoyable, thank you."

"You're a pig!"

"And you're a _wonderful_ kisser," he said simply before he turned his gaze back over toward Bonnie. "When do you think _Evelina _will be joining us?"

Bonnie narrowed her eyes. "Why?"

"I have some questions for her," he said simply, straightening his shirt which had rumpled thanks to how he was sitting. "Maybe I'll go see her myself?"

He sat up more straightly and began climbing out of the coffin – slowly, tauntingly – one hand on the lid, the other on the side, pushing himself up so he could swing his leg over and...his eyes widened. Klaus shuffled around before his face contorted with rage, eyes flickering down to the edge of the coffin. Taking his left hand, he traced his finger to the trail of blood around the wood and brought his hand back with a hiss as if it had burnt him.

"Ah," he pursed his lips and forced a dark chuckle. "So this is Evelina's work I take it?"

"Yeah," Bonnie said confidently, taking more steps forward now that she was confident he wouldn't be escaping to break her neck. "She knew exactly how to keep you where we need to."

"A blood witch," he mused to himself, looking over the line of blood along the casket again. The others in the room looked nervously from one person to the next – they did not know if Evie had wanted Klaus to know that she was a blood witch. Considering they were still confused, it was upsetting to hear that he could name her degree of talent as if he had been in the presence of one just the week before. Besides, considering how long Evie had kept that little fact from them, was he really supposed to have known so soon? Had they just lost an edge or element of surprise?

"You certainly know your supernatural beings," Damon added in sarcastically when Klaus seemed to be catching on to the wave of panic that had washed over them.

"I've met a few blood witches in my time – _Hostias_, some people call them. They're usually quite useful if they're any good," he turned his gaze towards the stairs with a smirk. "It seems yours isn't that gifted."

"That's not true," Bonnie said with a smile. "She kept you in there."

"Until she wants to let me out or dies, yes, I'm aware of their work," Klaus still did not genuinely seem bothered, or impressed.

"You know, it was fun catching up," Damon said suddenly, his eyes narrowing on the Original. "But I think it's way past your nap time."

And, without a pause, Damon went to the middle of the room and shut the top on Klaus' coffin on him. For some reason, it did not open again.

The group, now confident that Klaus was contained, moved as a whole toward the kitchen so that Damon could get a glass of scotch and so that they could talk amongst themselves a little more discretely. Elena immediately took her phone and informed Jeremy and Matt of what had happened, and Stefan helped Caroline put Tyler up in one of the guest rooms until he would wake up of his own volition.

"Well," Damon sighed, hitting his hand against the kitchen counter for emphasis. "Baddie Von Blood over there just made some pretty good points...Our blood witch isn't that great."

"I bit her, Damon," Caroline reminded, throwing her head into her hands with a sigh. "She has a good reason for passing out."

"And she was able to contain him," Bonnie agreed, crossing her arms to try and hold back the shivers Klaus' conversation brought. "That has to count for something."

"It counts for the fact that he knows she's a blood witch, he knows our plan, and she is currently in la-la-land playing with some bloody puppies." Damon hissed to them all. "Don't be naive. We're ten steps behind _again._"

"And Tyler still hasn't woken up," Caroline added quietly. "What about that?"

"It probably took a lot more out of him to have two people in one body than to have no one in Klaus' for a while," Elena began consoling, walking over to her friend to place a hand on her back. "Besides, Klaus is used to switching bodies; Tyler isn't used to being one of his victims."

"We have to have a little bit of faith here," Stefan frowned at the ground while he spoke to them all. "We'll wake her up in a few hours when the sun's up and make a plan from there. She can help assess the damage done to Tyler and we can try to figure out how we're going to work this now that Klaus is locked in a coffin in the middle of our living room."

"I really hope the girl scouts don't come tomorrow," Damon practically sang, turning around to pour himself a whiskey. Elena hit the glass out of his hand, not even flinching as the others did when it shattered against the flooring.

"Now is not the time, Damon."

"Now is the _perfect _time," he hissed back. "In case none of you have gotten to where I've gotten – we're all going to die as soon as he realizes he can just break the coffin and escape."

"We don't know that's how it works," Stefan argued.

"Either way, as soon as he's let out of that thing, we're all going to die. And since I've now accepted that I'm going to die," he turned to Elena with narrowed eyes. "I'm going let that moment find me while I have a nice buzz."

"That's not helping," Stefan argued. "We have Evie, she was able to keep him in there and all of us together will be able to figure out a way to fix this and kill him."

"I knew she'd help," Bonnie whispered to herself, before she looked at the group. "I told you."

"I'm still not really in the mood to forgive you," Caroline mumbled, sighing and raising her head. "But thanks."

"Caroline-"

"Don't take it personally," Bonnie flinched at Caroline's tone. "We're still not friends."

Bonnie nodded her head again, trying to ignore the clenching in her chest. She couldn't believe how out of hand this had all gotten – one minute they were all fighting together and the next it felt like everyone was on their own, private team. When had the rules turned to 'look out for number one'? Had it been when she had saved Klaus from being staked, or had it been some time before?

"So," Elena asked after a moment while she drummed her nails on the counter for emphasis. "Now what?"

"We wait," Stefan stated simply, leaning against the counter.

And so they waited. Coffee was made as they found places to sit around the kitchen. No one really had the nerve to say anything to one another – particularly after Caroline had confessed again to the feeling of guilt settling in her gut for attacking Evie. In the silence, Elena realized that maybe people agreed with the idea that Caroline had done wrong. Katherine surprisingly stayed quiet the whole time, but she was radiating nervousness – she was clearly wondering whether or not she should run away after Klaus had singled her out as he had. It was in her nature to flee, and having a vengeful Original knowing you were involved in his capture was definitely something to run away from.

Eventually Caroline decided that she would go back up to the bedroom Tyler had been taken to and make him comfortable. She said she would ease him into what happened if he woke up unexpectedly, but most could tell that she just wanted to get away from everyone. Maybe to think, maybe to blame herself more. It wasn't long after that that Bonnie had left the kitchen to check on Evie. She hadn't come back down – but half an hour after she left and had tittered around the bed, the vampires left in the kitchen could hear that she had fallen to sleep, probably in the chair beside her bed.

It left Katherine, Damon, Elena, and Stefan in the kitchen alone, looking at each other wearily as if daring someone to speak and at the same time hoping no one had the urge to.

"And then there were three," Damon said ominously, making everyone roll their eyes – particularly thanks to his bad math. He rectified it quickly. "Katherine, you're not included on account that you have no soul."

"I'm the oldest and strongest here, Damon," Katherine reminded him while she faked a large, Elena-like smile. "I suggest you play nice."

"You always hated it when I played nice," he rolled his eyes, motioning to Stefan as if saying 'can you believe this chick?'. Katherine let out a small laugh.

"Evie hates the good-guys too," she waggled her eyebrows. "And don't we all know that you'll take that into account, Damon."

"Leave him alone, Katherine," Elena warned her with a glare. "Now really isn't the time to start a fight."

"Does that mean that it's the time to drink?" Damon asked sarcastically, frowning at the garbage where Elena had thrown the shards of his glass tumbler.

"It's not the time to drink, and in this situation there's never a time to argue," Stefan corrected him before he turned his attention to Katherine. "You know, I'm surprised you're still here."

"Little Evelina gave me some good incentives to stay," Katherine said vaguely, resting her hands on the counter and looking the shoulders that were up to her ears so she could look at the stairs. "She can be almost as convincing as we _real _doppelgangers, don't you think, Elena?"

"She's not you, Katherine," Elena pointed out with a grimace that turned into a sneer when Katherine turned back to look at her with a dark smile. "And she won't run."

"Oh no, she'll stay," Katherine turned her glance over to Damon and then over to Stefan. "They all do, don't they? Still, I can't help but wonder which one she'll fall for...she likes bad boys like Damon, but she's so much closer with Stefan – do you ever stop to worry that she might steal your man, Elena?"

"She's not you, Katherine," Elena repeated even more darkly, clenching her hands into fists at her side.

"Say what you will, but she's a Petrova...and Petrovas have a way with men, you know that." Katherine smiled to herself again. "Evie's included."

"Oh don't be so jealous, Katherine," Damon's voice dripped disdain. "We know you don't like being the unimportant one, but it's not her fault she's better and knocked you out of the spotlight you love so much."

"I'm glad she did," she countered, crossing her arms defiantly. "It'll be nice to get your pathetic puppy-dog love off of my case for a while."

"You never have to worry about that again, Katherine," Damon argued strongly. "She won't either."

"Oh, yes, you're still _Team Elena_," Katherine's eyes rolled. "Then again, isn't everyone these days? Tell me, Elena, does it ever get tiring having _everyone _love you?"

"You don't," Elena noted, trying to ignore the turning of her gut. She couldn't deny that everyone had risked everything for her protection – Matt had almost died, Abby had been turned, countless people had been murdered...but this was not the time to show Katherine that she had hit a nerve. Right now there were bigger things to worry about.

"I don't," Katherine agreed with a bold smile. "I'm glad you noticed."

"You're on a pretty high horse for someone that everyone hates, Katherine," Stefan commented with a squared jaw. "Is that why you don't have anywhere else to be – because no one wants you anymore?"

"So clever, Stefan," Katherine purred, moving a step closer to him. "It's why I've always liked you most."

"Well, as fun as this trip down memory lane was," Damon growled to himself, hitting the counter to announce that he was moving. He didn't stop on his way out of the kitchen to say goodnight. "I'm going to go check on the invalid."

"How'd I know it'd be you?" Katherine asked innocently. He growled, turning quickly.

"You," he pointed to Elena. "Keep an eye on Katherine. You," he pointed to Stefan. "Keep an eye on Klaus. If anything happens, I'm holding you both personally responsible."

He was glad when he could escape the kitchen – walking past the closed casket to head toward the stairs. He was tired of hearing all the things he'd heard before, things that used to haunt him – repetition wasn't really his style and his normal release of escape wasn't quite an option considering Elena would just continue to break his very expensive crystal glasses. He knew Katherine had picked Stefan, even though he had waited, even though _he _had been the one to try and free her – she had still chosen Stefan.

Everyone _always _chose Stefan.

Elena had chosen Stefan too. After everything that had happened, after all the times he had saved her and all he had risked for her – to Elena, Damon was still a diamond in the rough. Too rough. As if he was not worth the work to make him all shiny and new. Then again, Damon didn't want to be all shiny and new – if he did that, then how would he ever get away with what he did? He wasn't Stefan. He never wanted to _be _Stefan – and all the idiots who tried to change him needed to learn that.

Including Elena.

Not that she wanted to learn anything from him anyway – since his blood had changed her the feelings she had toward him had seemed to disappear. But they were there...at one point, they had been there...

Upstairs, Bonnie was exactly where he had pictured her: limp in the chair beside Evie's bed – asleep and breathing deeply. On the bed, Evie was laid out as if she were a corpse, not having moved a millimetre since they had brought her upstairs in the first place. He frowned down at her, watching her and looking at all the differences between her and the doppelgangers, before hearing Bonnie wake up.

"Damon, what are you doing here?"

"Well, you came up here to check on her and left us for a few hours, so I decided to make sure you were both still breathing." He said simply, taking a step away from the bed so that he wouldn't have to see Elena's face looking at him again. With her this passed out and her hair straightened and flurried around her face, it was easy to see her as Elena had been when she had died. It was very close to the feeling of being staked near the heart.

"Sorry," Bonnie sighed. "It's been a hard couple days."

"Harder for you thanks to all your behind-the-back magic," he smirked sarcastically. "Pretty sneaky, by the way. Were I not so pissed I would be impressed."

"I didn't mean for everyone to be mad at me. Or to find out," Bonnie looked over to Evie for a moment. "I just wanted to keep your bloodlines alive but make Klaus go away – I was so upset at the time I didn't really think I had time to find any other options."

"Well, Klaus is alive and back in his body – how will you betray us next?" he asked, pretending to be the voice over on a soap opera. "I hope it has something to do with strippers."

She scowled at him, fidgeting in her chair while she woke her body up. "You're disgusting."

"And you're predictable," he shook his head. "I should have known you'd go and do something stupid for the sake of witchy-pride or whatever it is you're blaming your stupidity on."

"Like you go and do something stupid when Elena turns you down?" She shot back icily.

He made a face. "As I said: were I not pissed, I'd be impressed." He paused a moment. "Well, when will the wicked witch of the West wake up?"

"Probably when she isn't tired anymore," Bonnie said simply, rubbing her hands together. "Not that you would know, but being bitten _literally _drains you."

"I was a blood bag once, too. Before blood bags were even around," he pointed out, ignoring that he had been a much different kind of blood bag than these girls had been. His had been for sex and pleasure – which was a very different way of biting, indeed. "She's just being a girl. Some blood witch."

"Travelling through time may or may not have influenced her immune system and how easily she tires," Bonnie said sarcastically. "Excuse her for being human."

"Being human is boring," Damon scoffed loudly. "Being a witch must be way worse; so many _rules._"

"Not that we've been following them," Bonnie muttered quietly to herself. "It's like a constant poking in the back of my mind – warnings that what I'm doing is wrong. And the pounding in my ears is like a heartbeat – I swear, I feel like something is trying to tell me...to _warn_ me that something is about to happen."

"Ah yes, what is it they say?" A deadly familiar voice mused playfully from behind them. "When someone is thinking about you, your ears ring?"

Both Bonnie and Damon slowly turned around, eyes wide and terrified to see that Klaus was standing in the doorway to the bedroom, leaning on the doorframe as if he owned the house. He smiled brightly, touching his ear tauntingly while his eyes slipped over to Evelina. He took a moment to nudge himself off of the wooden doorframe and hummed an imaginary tune, as if copying the ringing he pretended to hear.

"S_omeone's _thinking about me..."

They didn't have time to scream before Klaus ran at them.

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**Man, these people never get a break. I am cruel...and have a sick love for cliffhangers. Longer chapter than normal, what did you think? To the amazing reviewers of the last chapter:**

_SomebodyWhoCares_**: I love Caroline too, she's so great. But I figured it would most likely be her to break and attack considering Tyler was also screaming and being harmed – it'd just be an overpowering urge to stop it, you know? Anyway, hope you liked the chapter!**

_SilverMoonlit_**: Hope you liked the chapter, thanks for reviewing!**

_Guest_**: I'm glad you liked it, here's another chapter for you :)**

_Mujona_**: Thank you very much, I'm flattered! I hope you liked this last chapter as well.**

_Tvdlover87654_**: I'm glad you liked the last chapter, hopefully this one was intense too!**

_nickiR0x_**: I know the length of these could use work, I'm trying to make it better but until it's all put out there, I don't want to give anything away too much or go into anything too quickly. Also, I happen to love the abrupt and startling endings of these chapters – Vampire Diaries is fun to play around with because everything is just so intense and everything moves so quickly in the show, so doing the same here can be difficult. No, Honoria Fell is not the Honoria being referred to – as Stefan brutally killed her – but the name is definitely still in the mix of questions to be answered. Damon, Katherine and Caroline are my favourites as well! I do also love the Originals – all of them save maybe Finn – just because their characters are so precise and interesting. Elijah and I would get along swimmingly in real life. And I would totally fall for Damon and Klaus as I love bad boys.**

_mel_**: I'm glad you liked the last chapter, hopefully this one tickled your fancy as well!**

_TheForrestAgain_**: The question on what happens to Damon in the future is definitely an interesting one...which will eventually be answered. Hopefully you keep liking it until then!**

_Angel of the Night Watchers_**: I'm glad you liked it! I'll have more chapters for you probably near the end of this week or early next week. Getting my computer back has been great but it's devastating to see how behind I am! Have you finished the last season of Vampire Diaries yet? Are you onto the excitement (and hotness because Damon's the shit) that is season four?**

_abc500_**: I want to start off by saying that I love your profile picture. Dwight is the greatest and if I could marry any man on planet earth, Jim H. would probably be in my top five...maybe even top three. Anyway, we'll be finding out more about Evie in the next chapter – so hopefully you enjoyed this chapter and stick around until then! Thanks for reviewing.**

_RikkiBlake777_**: I'm glad that you like the story so far, hopefully this chapter was as exciting as the last few! Thanks for the review :)**

_Moonwolf27_**: Thanks for the review, hope you liked!**

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**Well everyone – Klaus is out for blood! What did everyone think? I'd love to hear your thoughts so please leave me with a **_REVIEW!_

**-Egypt**


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